Vindicta
by SpaceClown
Summary: On the edge of the Rim, an IPX Explorer ship uncovers a new threat to one of the core worlds of the ISA. A small unit of Rangers is dispatched to investigate, only to discover that a threat believed to be over could be beginning all over again. Set between the events of "Objects at Rest" and "Call to Arms," and featuring a few cameos from major characters.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Monday, July 19th, 2266

08:30 EST

Sector 1305, The Rim

Taggart worked slowly and carefully over the fine relief carving on his desk, carefully brushing and scraping the dirt and rock from the meticulously carved surface of one of his most recent finds. His tools were spread out all over his desk, but none were out of his reach. The dirt and grit covered his hands and coated the tray over which he worked and as he cleaned he whistled softly to himself. The ruins that they had found on the last planet they surveyed were incredible, and Taggart would be content to sit here cleaning and studding them for the rest of the voyage.

The intercom light awoke just before the hollow sounding voice of Clark, the communications officer, spilled out of it.

"Mr. Taggart, Captain Ward would like you on the bridge."

"Fine, in a moment," Taggart replied in an irritated tone.

"He was adamant about you being up here quickly, sir."

Taggart placed his work down, picked up a towel to wipe away the dirt from his hands, and glared at the intercom for a moment. It was just his luck that as soon as he had sat down to really start working, something would go wrong. He stood and started toward the door. It whisked open at his approach, and the intercom light at his desk blinked out.

Taggart shifted about in the gravity lock, placing the Velcro slippers over his shoes. The light above the indicator went out and he began to float in response to his motions. The outer door opened and Taggart launched himself down the hall, passing by other technicians and staff. When it came time to turn, he dragged his feet over the floor, letting the Velcro hooks on his feet catch in the loops that were attached to the floor. He darted through the hallways expertly, and took the lifts to the command deck, where he entered another gravity lock. Once he was standing on the floor, in inner doors opened and he stepped onto the bridge of the _Lucent_, Interplanetary Expedition's newest and most advanced deep space / new technologies acquisition ship. She was enormous, over two hundred and fifty meters long and a hundred wide, with her own shuttle bay, two complete Isolabs that were connected to the main hull by several umbilicals and a support structure that could be severed in less than a second in the event of a containment breach. She had isolated artificial gravity for the command areas, laboratories and crew quarters. With her next upgrade she would have artificial gravity all over. Taggart was proud to be the executive officer of such a ship; his only complaint was Captain Ward.

"Took you long enough, Taggart." Ward said gruffly.

"I was in Isolab Two, it's a long way to go."

"Whatever. What the hell were doing back there anyway? Thought you were an officer on this ship," Ward growled, swiveling around in his chair in the center of the hub. His uniform was starched as always, and his graying hair was trimmed short.

Taggart sighed inwardly. It was always the same with Ward, an ex-EarthForce Captain selected to be the commanding officer because of his experience commanding starships in deep space, and little else.

"I was doing my job. I'm a xeno-archaeologist as I have told you many, many times. I'm not even on duty right now. I came up here as a courtesy, so if you're done playing 'I'm the Captain' now could you please tell me why I was called up here."

Ward had this argument with Taggart a hundred times, and before this voyage was over he was sure they'd have it a hundred more. Ward growled, stood up from the captain's chair and motioned Taggart over to the sensor station. They stood behind the scanning tech, Ramirez, and Ward whispered into Taggart's ear, "Don't think that just because this isn't EarthForce that I can't discipline you. This is still a ship in space and I'm still the captain, so step lively, _Commander_."

"Yes sir," Taggart acknowledged sarcastically. "What's the problem?"

Ramirez kept his eyes on his console, and delivered his report.

"We are currently on approach to system 8715 EK, in an uncharted section of the Rim. We are moving through normal space due to a lack of hyperspace beacons in the area. We will deploy a temporary one when we reach the appropriate coordinates."

Taggart looked at Ward. The grizzled captain kept his fierce blue eyes trained on the console. Ramirez continued.

"While doing our preliminary long range energy signature scan on the system, we picked something up within the orbit of the outermost planet. At the time we thought it might have been intra-planetary spacecraft, but as we got closer we amended our theory. We hit enhanced visual range about twenty minutes ago, and saw this."

Ramirez flipped on the main scanner and the enhancing computer, and sent the result to the bridge display. Taggart looked at it and took a step forward.

It appeared to be normal space, but it was littered with debris. Some of the larger pieces were clearly the remnants of starships, but they did not look like anything Taggart had seen. Making a quick count, Taggart estimated that there must be over one hundred ships here, all sizes. Two distinct styles were present, neither looked friendly.

"A battle?" Taggart asked. "Do we know when this happened?"

Ward strode over to his chair and sat stiffly into it. "The energy spikes Ramirez detected are probably the last of the automated systems on board some of the ships. The last one died about three hours ago. All scans now are negative, except for some residual thermal signatures. Probably fires within some of those ships. It's not likely that there are hostiles in the area, this battle is days old."

"We should let IPX know, anyway."

"We will. Our objective is to chart this system and examine it for new technologies. I am seeking your agreement to proceed with that objective."

Taggart looked back at the screen to see the broken vessels floating in space. A chill ran down his back as one of the bigger brown hulks drifted closer. He shook the feeling of nervousness and turned back to Ward. He nodded once and Ward returned the gesture.

"Carter," Ward said to the navigator, "plot a course to bring us by the scene of that battle, and tell engineering to get the HS beacon ready to go. We're gonna leave it here before we go in."

"Aye sir, course plotted. Upon deployment of the beacon our estimated time of intercept with unknown vessels, five hours forty-three minutes."

Taggart walked to his station, just below and behind the captain's chair and console. He punched up the external scanners and went over all of the available data, but was left feeling just as unnerved. There did not appear to be any life forms, but they couldn't be very sure until they were much closer. He opened a channel to the IPX Theta-20 signal booster in hyperspace, but until the new beacon they were about to deploy was installed, the signal would still have to travel to Theta-20 before it could be accelerated. Taggart estimated that by the time IPX received his message, the _Lucent_ would have been at the battle site for about an hour. He leaned back in his chair and watched the alien ships in his console drift and bounce into one another.

The ship was on full alert as it crept close enough for the more delicate sensors to begin probing the wreckage of the ships. Taggart chewed his fingernails mercilessly as the ship drew within three hundred meters of the outermost wreckage. The sensor array had been fully extended from the nose of the _Lucent_, exposing the most sensitive instruments, as the crew searched for some clue, or someone left alive.

Lieutenant Tsergov, the EarthForce observer, had been awakened and brought to the bridge only around an hour ago, much too late to warn the military and possibly deny the ship permission to explore the site. The shouting match that he and Captain Ward shared was tremendous, but pointless. Ward dismissed Tsergov's complaints and worries with his catch all reply. "On this ship, I'm the captain and what I say goes." Tsergov now paced around the hub glaring at each new report that came through, his blonde hair only slightly disheveled after the verbal melee, and his Earth Alliance uniform was immaculate.

The initial reports indicated that the ships involved were powerful, very powerful. The hulls seemed to be partly organic, and looked to be incredibly resistant to damage. The offensive capabilities of the crafts also seemed very advanced, judging by the condition of the dead ships.

Ramirez called Lt. Tsergov to his station and the two of them began comparing notes. Captain Ward demanded a description of the system. Taggart punched up the reports from their instrument surveys.

"There are three visible planets, all without atmospheres. An asteroid cloud of sufficient density and composition to block our sensors exists further in. Gravitational tugs on the rocks suggest there may be planets within the cloud, and the existence of the cloud probably means that there are either some serious gravitational fluctuations going on inside of the cloud, or that there is some property of the rocks that make up the cloud that keeps them in that formation. To find out we'd need to cross our fingers and send a probe, or we'd have to send a manned shuttle."

"Captain," Tsergov interrupted, and motioned for Ward to join him at one of the scanning stations, "we have a situation. I have identified the nature of the majority of these vessels. Their configuration is consistent with Drakh Raiders, Shuttles, Cruisers and we believe that the main bulk of the wreckage in this sector," he had a portion of the map highlighted, "is the remnants of a Drakh Carrier. The other vessels are a mystery. In the condition that they are, I have no way of knowing what their original configuration may have been, but preliminary hull composition reports would lead me to believe that the hulls of the ships are very alien in design. Like nothing I've come across."

"Can we assume that these unidentified vessels are the ones who destroyed the Drakh fleet?" Captain Ward asked.

"That is my assumption."

"And we have no way of knowing what the hell they were?"

"I can try asking Babylon 5 or the ISA if they have anything similar on record. B-5 has had more contact with alien ships than any other Earth Alliance facility, and the ISA by nature would be…" Ramirez was cut off by the captain.

"But if we go asking questions, they're going to want to know why."

"Perhaps, but my recommendation is still that this be reported to Earth Dome immediately, and that the _Lucent_ withdraw until the area has been properly secured," said Tsergov stiffly.

"I'm aware of your recommendations, Lieutenant. We won't be here long enough to get into trouble." Captain Ward returned to his chair. "Reconfigure the sensors to let us know of any power surges or incoming transmissions or vessels, and move us closer to the center of the wreckage. I want to have a good look at this junk to see if there's something we can salvage."

"Captain," Taggart broke in, "I think we should wait here for confirmation from IPX. We may not have the authority to investigate something like this." Taggart looked toward Tsergov who nodded his support.

"Negative Mr. Taggart. If we are going to poke around we need to do it now. If something important was left behind, then someone is going to come looking for it. If that is the case, then I want to be gone with the goodies before they get here. Carry on Carter."

Taggart went back to his console and began doing extensive life form tests. His scanners revealed plenty of bodies, all of which he assumed were Drakh, but none were alive. On several occasions, the_ Lucent_ had to maneuver around a large piece of wreckage, and there were a couple of false alarms as debris was mistaken for inbound vessels, but there was little else to do except catalogue and search the remnants.

After a couple of hours in the debris field, the _Lucent_ received a communication from IPX from the new hyperspace signal booster attached to the navigation beacon they had deployed earlier. Clark put the message through to the captain's console, and Taggart read it over his shoulder, and checked the mission clock. The new nav beacon and booster shaved the communication time from six hours to one.

_Lucent. Investigation of derelict vessels is approved as long as no clear danger is present to crew or IPX equipment. Authorization granted to attempt to acquire new technologies from derelict vessels. _

Taggart stepped back and waited for Ward's "I told you so" but it didn't come. What he got was something much worse. The general quarters alarm sounded, and Ramirez's voice rose above it.

"Captain we have a new signal! An active power source just appeared. It's some kind of ship leaving the burning cruiser in sector 16. It could be a shuttle."

"Is it armed?" Taggart asked, leaping into his station.

"Unknown. It is on a heading taking it into the asteroid cloud."

"Can we intercept?" Ward asked.

Ramirez replied, "Not in the _Lucent_, maybe in a shuttle."

"Taggart!" the captain shouted.

"No life signs in the shuttle. She's empty and on autopilot," Taggart answered as he studied his sensor readings. "It may have launched automatically in response to the signal from IPX."

Ward stood and jogged over to the gravity lock at the back of the bridge. He punched the button and stepped in.

"Taggart you're in charge here. I'm taking our shuttle out to bring that vessel in. If we can catch it while it's still powered up we may be able to find out a lot more about these Drakh than we can from these burned out hulks." Ward raised his hands as Taggart stood up. "I'm taking a few big strong techs with me, so don't worry," he said in response to Taggart's interrupted protest.

Tsergov ran over and joined Captain Ward in the gravity lock as the door slid closed.

Taggart jumped into the command chair and gave Carter the order to rotate the ship to expose the shuttle bay to the fleeing Drakh craft, and to send the _Lucent_ into a drift to keep the fleeing shuttle in sight. Two minutes later a Kestrel shuttle bolted from the _Lucent_ and flew after its target. Taggart knew better than to expect his protest to affect Captain Ward's decision. There was no way that he would have listened. Ward preferred action to caution, and sooner or later that preference would leave Taggart in charge of the _Lucent _permanently.

Captain Ward handled the shuttle well, darting in and out of the flying wreckage of the Drakh and alien vessels, while always keeping his quarry in sight. The other shuttle was quick, and seemed to have a gravitic design, making it much more maneuverable than the Kestrel shuttle that Ward piloted, and even though he lost ground in places where tight maneuvering was required, the captain gained it back when he could punch the engines to full power.

"It's weird looking all right. Kinda looks like a flying onion."

"Appearances aside, it's very advanced. I'm reading a very high energy output for so small a craft, and it is maneuvering without thrusters or any other kind of expellant propulsion." Tsergov commented as he tried to stay focused on his console. His knuckles were white with tension as he bounced around in his seat and against his harness. "Two minutes to contact with the asteroid cloud. We will not intercept before our target gains the field."

"Then we'll go in after it." Ward said simply.

Tsergov closed his eyes and did his best to keep his dinner down. The shuttle broke free of the debris from the battle, and Captain Ward opened the throttle on the engines and tickled the afterburners for a moment to further increase the speed. Despite this, the other shuttle slipped into the asteroid field about forty seconds before Ward. His speed reduced to almost nothing because of the density of the field, Ward flipped on all of his instruments to aid in navigation.

Tsergov attempted to report to the _Lucent_, but there was only static on all of the communication channels. He mentioned this to Captain Ward who simply grunted and continued to press deeper into the field. After three minutes of near misses and an occasional glancing blow, the shuttle emerged from the asteroid shell on the inside, and resumed a full burn pursuit of the other shuttle, now only about a minute ahead of their position.

"Captain Ward, we should attempt to discover why we can't raise the _Lucent_. They may attempt some kind of rescue, believing us damaged or destroyed because they cannot hear us, and risk losing the other shuttle."

"We'll be fine Lieutenant. We've almost got her."

"Sir, I must state for the record that I find this behavior inexcus…..oh no," Tsergov said, his confrontational and argumentative tone evaporating to one of concern verging on panic. "Captain Ward I'm showing active signals all around us, and the alien shuttle is transmitting."

"Transmitting?! Who the hell is it talking to?!"

As Captain Ward asked his question, an immense vessel flew across the path of the shuttle, dwarfing and shaking it with its passing.

"Oh hell," Captain Ward muttered.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Saturday, July 24th, 2266

13:26 EST

Sector 926

"Captain Cartwright, we have an incoming message from Earth Dome. It's General Muyat," Ensign Thomas said just as Cartwright was settling in to his chair with a hot cup of the brown water that EarthForce tried to pass of as coffee. He winced as he heard his name, but responded promptly. His native British accent added an air of authority and refinement to even casual conversation, but was amplified when giving orders.

"Send it to my station, Ensign."

Cartwright walked to his console expecting the worst. He and the rest of the crew were finally on their way back to Proxima for some shore leave, and he was convinced that this message would end up being a delay of one kind or another. Anyone could deliver good news, but generals gave the bad news so you couldn't complain about it.

Captain Cartwright prepared for the bad news as he waited for the image of the General to materialize. Before it sprang to life, the monitor reflected Cartwright himself, with his square jaw, high forehead and narrow eyes. Cartwright smiled to himself and was glad he loved this ship, because he was sure no woman would care for his homely looks. The pleasantly round face of General Muyat replaced his reflection in the monitor. She was fifty-something with a rich coffee complexion. The deep but soft lines of a soldier who has seen a lot of action but never lost her sense of humor politely shared her face with bright brown eyes. Her graying hair was pulled back in a tight bun, and her full lips curved into a half smile as she greeted the Captain.

"Good afternoon, Captain. Did I catch you in the middle of something?"

Cartwright let the bitter smile fall from his face, and replied, "No, General. Just an amusing thought, and out here it's late morning. We seem to have drifted off of Earth Standard Time again. What can I do for you?"

General Muyat cleared her throat and let her own smirk disappear. She scooped up a film, glanced at it and then looked at Cartwright again. "I'm sorry to be the one to give this to you Ben, but something has come up and we need you to check it out. It should only delay your return for a few days."

Cartwright sipped his coffee and let the silence stretch out between them. When he thought Muyat was on the verge of speaking again, he replied.

"General, we've been in deep space for twenty-eight months. We've placed five jumpgates and charted sixty-three planets, completely surveying eleven of them, with no crew rotation, and no time off. We're very tired and looking forward to our leave."

"I understand, but this deviation is a minor one. It should only add two or three days to your mission, and I thought you should know that I have been granted permission to extend the leave for yourself and your crew an additional two weeks if you can find the time to run this little errand."

"Two weeks?" Cartwright asked as he scratched his jaw just below his ear. "I never thought I would be bought so cheaply."

"Tut, tut, Captain. I just know all the cracks in your armor."

"Alright General Muyat, what can the _Polowski_ do for Earth?"

"Earth Dome was contacted by Interplanetary Expeditions late last night. They have a large science and exploration vessel, some kind of mobile laboratory called the _Lucent_ that has been exploring out on the Rim. Crew of about one hundred people, including an EarthForce Officer sent along as an observer, one Lieutenant Sasha Tsergov.

"The _Lucent_ reported contact with the remnants of a large fleet battle in sector 1305, on Monday the 19th. IPX authorized a search of the debris. EarthForce was not notified about any of this until almost twenty-two hours later. The last communication from the _Lucent_ was early on Thursday, the 22nd. Since then they have been silent."

"What was the content of the last communication?"

"It was a message from Captain Ward, detailing the last few hours of cataloging. He did not report finding anything of interest, and claimed that they were proceeding to one of the larger vessels. Nothing more."

"Seems like there would have been something interesting to report after sifting through an alien fleet with a mobile laboratory. Why send us? The _Polowski_ is an Explorer. We aren't really equipped to perform a search and rescue, especially in a debris field."

"At the moment, your orders are to attempt to locate the _Lucent_, and establish contact. You are not to mount a rescue unless the crew is in immediate danger. We have contacted the _Leviathan_, who is currently supporting the ISA in sweeping out some raiders near in sector 902. As soon as she can get away, she will arrive to take over the situation. Right now you are the closest ship to that sector, and you can get there before anyone else. All we need you to do is find them and make sure they're okay."

Cartwright took another sip of his coffee and nodded to the General. "Send me all of the information you have. Sector 1305 is around two jumps from here. I'll be there in eight hours, give or take."

"Thank you Captain." General Muyat's image vanished from the screen, and was replaced with the file download notification.

"Greatest adventure of all my arse," Cartwright mumbled to himself as he leaned back in his chair and looked around the cramped bridge at the disappointed faces of the crew. They had of course overheard the General. Captain Cartwright decided it would be best just to let them be, and prepare for the mission. He himself was just as disappointed as the rest of the bridge crew, and as the rest of the ship would be as well when they found out. He rubbed his eyes and began preparing the ship.

"Ensign Thomas, wake Commander Franks and have him and the other senior officers meet me in the galley. Send a ship-wide announcement about our situation once that meeting is under way. Get the pilots into a briefing no later than two hours from now, and have the Starfury crews give each fighter a thorough check. I want them ready to fly in six hours."

"Aye sir," Thomas said. "What do you think we'll find?"

"Oh I expect we'll find a ship full of grave robbers who managed to break their radio. If we even find them at all. They could be half way to Earth by now. I'm more worried about the battle they claim to have found. When the file is finished downloading, transfer it to the galley. I'm on my way down there now. I abhor bad news on an empty stomach."

"Better eat up, Captain," Thomas said as he paged Commander Franks, the XO of the _Polowski_. "I have a feeling we're in for a lot more where this came from."

"So negative Ensign? It could be worse. We could be looking for a Pak'Ma'Ra foodstuffs transport."

"There it is," Ensign Thomas reported as the _Polowski_ slowed to a halt outside the debris field.

Captain Cartwright walked next to his First Officer, William Franks, who was himself going over the reports that were coming in from the sensors and scanners. Franks had immediately begun all sorts of preparations after the briefing in the galley. He had missed all of the recent action in the civil war that preceded President Clark's death, and he was eager to prove himself.

"Captain, if the information provided by the Interstellar Alliance is correct, these are definitely Drakh craft."

"Try not to sound so excited Commander. If the information the ISA provided is correct, the Drakh are quite devious, and more than capable adversaries."

"Aye sir, but I think we can relax. There's no way that any of them could have survived this fight. The damage to their vessels is too extreme."

"Correct, but I would like to know what put them in this condition before we get any closer. What can you tell me about the other crafts, the ones that do not conform to the Drakh schematics?"

"Little at the moment. If we could get a hull sample aboard we might be able to tell what the mean level of their technology is, or was. Right now I can't even tell you what the original ships looked like. There are hardly any sizeable remnants to postulate from."

"Perhaps pulling a piece of those ships aboard is what the crew of the _Lucent_ did. I'd rather not take the risk until we know for sure what happened. Ensign Thomas, what is the position of the _Lucent_?"

Thomas punched a few buttons on his console and looked over his shoulder at the captain.

"Nine thousand, eight hundred and sixty-two meters from our position. She looks to be drifting, but I am reading power and an atmosphere within the ship. There appear to be a handful of life signs on board, but I'm having trouble locking down how many. The asteroids nearby may have a chemical or elemental structure that interferes with our instruments. If we were able to get closer, we may be able to take better readings."

"No, we won't be getting any closer. Have they responded to any of our messages?"

"Negative, sir."

"Captain," Commander Franks interrupted, "Request permission to take our survey shuttle to the _Lucent_ to ascertain the exact condition of the vessel and the crew."

Captain Cartwright knew that sooner or later Franks would have asked to head over there. Cartwright had plans of heading over himself, just to stretch his legs a bit, but knew that he could not leave his own vessel. In that respect, he envied his XO. He sighed to himself, not wanting to place any part of his crew at risk, but saw little alternative. The _Polowski_ was too big to maneuver into a debris field the size if this one. Even this far out, he was nervous about a nut or a bolt flying around and putting a hole somewhere in the ship. A shuttle was the easiest and most sensible way to learn more about the _Lucent_.

"Go ahead Commander Franks. Take the shuttle out but I want a fly-by only. You are not to dock or otherwise come into contact with the _Lucent_ or any other object out there. Is that understood?"

"Aye sir."

"You will have four Starfuries riding escort to ensure that you are safe."

"Aye sir," Franks replied, with a noticeably smaller degree of enthusiasm.

"Dismissed," Cartwright quipped. Commander Franks left the bridge to begin the fly-by mission. Captain Cartwright ordered the Starfuries out now, to get the pilots used to being in space again. Aside from the weekly drills performed to keep the machines working, the pilots have had little to do except fly around the ship. Better they be ready if something should happen.

The Starfuries hit space and Cartwright had a channel opened to them.

"_Polowski_ to alpha wing, from this point on you will keep this channel open, and use it to respond. While the shuttle is preparing I want a sweep of the area, but I do not want you to use active scanning. Passive only. I don't want us tripping some kind of trap with our probes."

The pilots all confirmed and the chatter on the open comm line increased as they worked out their flight patterns and who would look where. Cartwright sat down heavily in his chair and once again fought down the urge to try and raise the _Leviathan_ to find out when she would be along. He busied himself with the minutia of command, signing logs and reports and other details that were annoying and repetitive and succeeded in doing only one thing efficiently; killing time.

Cartwright was thankfully interrupted almost forty minutes later by the hangar requesting permission to release the shuttle. Cartwright cleared it, and Commander Franks took off to check on the _Lucent_. When the shuttle was out Cartwright called up to Ensign Thomas.

"Ensign, please give me a tactical display on the command console to show the positions of all the craft involved in the exercise."

The console lit up with a representation of the debris field. It then zoomed in on the shuttle and escorts. Commander Franks appeared to be taking things a bit fast, zipping through the wreckage with abandon, but no small amount of skill. The fighters, two ahead and two behind the shuttle, seemed more than equal to Franks' maneuvers, and dutifully stayed with the shuttle.

The debris lessened as the search team neared the _Lucent_. The ships slowed down and the Starfuries began a sweeping run in the immediate area. Commander Franks' voice came over the open line.

"Survey One to _Polowski_, I have arrived at the target and am commencing an external visual inspection and emissions detection to check for punctures in the hull. Life signs are registering in a large structure that is located outside of the ship, probably one of the external Isolabs. The aft Isolab is missing entirely, and there appears to be some blast damage to the hull near the connecting structure and umbilical. I'm sending the visual feed from the shuttle's external cameras."

Captain Cartwright stared at his console, looking at the _Lucent_ floating in space. The shuttle was taking a slow and deliberate path around the vessel, so that all sides of it could be documented. Cartwright had seen empty hulks in space, but this one gave him goose bumps for a reason that was beyond his grasp. Something was just not right about the ship. He dismissed it as nervous tension; a result of being so close to the debris.

"Environmental conditions within the ship appear to be within normal parameters. Some sections are showing elevated carbon dioxide and temperatures. There may have been fires burning onboard," Franks continued his report as his shuttle continued its lazy survey. "Coming up on the shuttle bay, there does not appear to be any remaining shuttles, but the outer doors are open. The inner doors are closed."

Cartwright rubbed the day's worth of stubble in his upper lip with his right index finger. He punched the transmit button from his station. "Franks, I want you to abandon the survey of the ship itself. Find out if there is a way to communicate with the remaining crew in the Isolab. How many are we looking at?"

"Looks to be eight signals, sir. One is very weak. The Isolab has dangerously high levels of CO2, Captain" came Franks' reply.

Captain Cartwright stood up and began pacing about the bridge. His vague unease was increasing. Sweat decorated his hairline and was already running down the center of his back beneath his uniform. For no reason he could pin down, he was convinced that whatever had happened to the crew of the _Lucent_ could happen again. Without a firm reason to support this however, he could not act. Instead he stuffed his baseless fear beneath the considerable weight of his EarthForce training, and focused on opening a dialogue with the remaining crew and safely extracting them. He chewed on the inside of his cheek and waited for Franks' report.

"Captain," Ensign Thomas said timidly, "you all right? You seem tense."

"I'm fine Ensign. I don't like being this close to all that junk flying around, that's all. I want to get those people off of that ship, and I can't decide how to do it, aside from letting Commander Franks board the _Lucent_, which I certainly do not want to do." Cartwright realized he was running on at the mouth and snapped it shut. The growing dread he was experiencing was getting the best of him and he knew it. He rubbed his eyes hard and took a few steps away from the Ensign, who dropped his eyes back to his console.

Franks' voice came over the speakers with a touch of static. "Captain, I've arrived at the Isolab. There are windows on the structure. I'm maneuvering to get a better look inside, and I'm flashing a light at the lab in the hopes of catching someone's attention."

Seconds passed as Cartwright watched the Isolab in the monitor flash from the shuttle signal lights. More time slipped by and Franks continued to slowly move along the Isolab, trying to get the light into every window.

"Captain, this lab is showing extremely elevated levels of carbon dioxide. There is no suspended particulate matter in the air however. No sign of fire. It's possible that the scrubbers could be dead, or that they have somehow been turned off."

Franks and Cartwright saw it at the same time. Someone within the lab signaled back. Cartwright's heart jumped into his throat, and he sat down quickly at his station. Franks swung the shuttle around and brought his own viewport level with the window that the signal came from. He pushed the nose of the shuttle close to the Isolab, stopping around ten meters from the hull.

The signal flashed again from within the _Lucent_. Cartwright recognized it immediately as Morse Code.

"Commander Franks, respond to that message."

"Aye sir."

Franks began signaling the _Lucent _with one of his navigation lights. As he did so, the computer translated the flashes and displayed the message on the consoles on board the _Polowski_. CAN WE ASSIST?

Cartwright watched the reply come over the video screen. PLEASE HELP. LOW AIR. AIRLOCK SEALED FROM OUTSIDE. PLEASE HELP.

"Sealed from the outside?!" Cartwright blurted out. "How the hell did they manage that? Commander please verify visually that this is the case."

Franks sent STANDBY to the Isolab. He then nudged the shuttle under the vessel to investigate the airlock at the Isolab and the one the separated the umbilical from the main hull. From space they both appeared normal. Franks returned to the window and continued to relay questions to those inside. WHERE IS REST OF CREW?

The reply came through and virtually guaranteed that the _Polowski_ would be late reaching Proxima.

DEAD. LONG STORY. TELL YOU OVER COFFEE. NO FEAR OF CONTAMINATION. JUST US HUMANS HERE. CAN YOU OPEN DOOR PLEASE?

"Just what the hell does that mean?" Cartwright asked no one in particular. "Franks," he continued, "what is the maximum number of persons that you can transport?"

"Around twenty, but I could get more in a pinch if I had to," Franks could not keep the excitement out of his voice.

"Send this to the _Lucent_: _Stand fast. Will return with force to extract crew. Twenty minutes_. When you're done head back at once to top off your fuel tanks and to pick up a boarding party."

"Aye sir."

"Ensign Thomas, relay a copy of the last thirty minutes of this evening's log to Earth Dome and the _Leviathan_. Advise both that we are attempting to free the crew, and may be taking the survivors aboard."

"Aye sir," Thomas responded.

Cartwright scrambled the medical team, ordering them to have some portable testing equipment placed aboard the shuttle when it docked. He also placed two engineers with the group to see about repairing the airlock. When the survey shuttle docked in its berth, Cartwright was waiting to board it. He trotted up the ramp and walked forward of the bulky sensor equipment to the command room. Franks was running down his post and pre-flight checklists as Cartwright entered.

"Here," Captain Cartwright said as he tossed a holster and PPG onto the Commander's lap.

"Do you really think this will be necessary, Captain?" Franks asked as he continued his checks.

"Let's hope not. Of the rescue party, you will have the only weapon, and let me be clear about this; your number one priority is the safety of your shipmates. I don't want any funny business while you are over there. In and out quick, and you are not to remove your respirators, nor is anyone except the medical staff to touch the crew of the _Lucent_. Until I'm sure that there is no chance of any kind of contagion, you will wait outside the ship for the testing device to verify that there are no pathogens either inside or outside of those people. You understand that if there is some kind of infection and you are exposed to it…"

"I'll be flying home in the shuttle," Franks interrupted. "I'm aware of the risks, sir, and I'm eager to get those people out all the same."

"Very well Commander. You have my leave to get under way as soon as the shuttle is ready. Take all the pertinent precautions, and remember to keep everyone calm. I'll see you when you return."

"Aye sir."

Cartwright stepped off of the shuttle as the medical team was hoisting the last of their equipment on board. He crossed the airlock threshold and reentered one of the corridors of the _Polowski_, wondering if he was doing the right thing. Unless the crew of the _Lucent_ were lying they would be dead soon, and it was his duty as an officer and as a human being to help them. Cartwright could not foresee a reason why they would be lying about their condition, but the fact that they could be lying hung about his neck like a chain. He felt justified issuing a sidearm to Commander Franks, not for all the things that he could imagine going wrong, but for all the things he couldn't.

When the shuttle left the hangar, Captain Cartwright was just getting back to the bridge. He sat in his command chair and hoped silently that his report to Earth Dome on the rescue would contain an abundance of the words "routine" and "uneventful."

Commander Franks guided the shuttle to a soft landing in the hangar of the _Lucent_, and the outer doors closed behind it. Franks watched as the bay was pressurized, and the inner doors opened, revealing the crew entrance to the ship.

"Who pressurized the shuttle bay?" asked Dr. Keenan, one of the trauma specialists.

"It's probably automated. There isn't a life sign anywhere near here. Everyone put on your respirators and gloves, it's time to go," Franks said.

He led the team, which consisted of himself, Dr. Keenan, two medical technicians named Peters and Rumone, and two engineers named Hall and Takagi, out of the shuttle, and across the shuttle bay. There was no gravity, but the crew was used to that, since several sections of the _Polowski_ were zero g. The team reached the door, and Commander Franks opened it.

The corridor was lit, and empty. The team bounced and glided through the corridors toward the Isolab on the opposite side of the ship. Commander Franks followed the directions on the walls of the ship, and periodically consulted a map if the _Lucent_ to guide him. After crossing the midpoint of the ship, Dr. Keenan noticed a slight haze of smoke in the air. Not commenting, Commander Franks pressed on, moving towards the airlock to the Isolab.

After twenty minutes of flying through the corridors, Commander Franks pulled the group to a halt two corridors from the airlock. Rumone, who was just behind Franks spoke first.

"Is that what I think it is?"

Commander Franks nodded, and raised his left hand. He hit the send button on his link and contacted the _Polowski_.

"Commander Franks to _Polowski_, we've found a body. We are moving to investigate."

Franks and the rest drifted forward towards the still form. The body's back was turned, but the tight jumpsuit revealed feminine lines and the long hair confirmed that it was a woman. Franks reached out to spin her around, and when her face was visible, Takagi gasped. Her face was a mass of bruises and cuts and dents. Her neck was likewise savaged. Dr. Keenan looked her over and used his own link to send his summation to the Captain.

"From just what I can see this was a woman, Caucasian, mid-twenties. She looks to have been beaten or strangled to death."

Captain Cartwright's static laden reply came over the links. "Get on to someone you can help Doctor."

"Understood," Frank confirmed. He brought the team around the dead woman, who was now drifting again from Dr. Keenan's gentle examination, and opened a door between two corridors to proceed.

"Holy shit," he said out loud. "Captain, I've entered the corridor that leads to the Isolab One airlock. There are perhaps a dozen bodies here. There is a large quantity of blood on the walls and in the air. They are all bound at their hands. I think they may have been executed. I'm leaving Dr. Keenan, Ensign Peters and Mr. Rumone to do a quick examination of the scene, and I'm taking Ensign Takagi and Lt. Hall to the airlock to see if there is something blocking it."

Franks and the engineers maneuvered through the carnage to the airlock, and found that it was indeed blocked. Pipes and paneling had been smashed and welded to the airlock frame, and until that was removed they wouldn't even know if the airlock was functional. Franks gave the order to start cutting, and he got out of the engineers' way. The medical team caught up with Franks about five minutes later, and Dr. Keenan activated his link and delivered his report.

"There are fourteen individuals, all were bound at the wrists. Some suffered blunt force trauma to the head and neck, some were stabbed and one was shot with a PPG or similar weapon at close range. The evidence I found on their bodies supports Commander Frank's estimation that these people were executed. All of them were struck from above and behind. There are slight, and in some cases no marks from the restraints on their wrists, which I take to mean that they either had no inclination to try and escape, or no time. I would believe the latter to be true. Whatever happened to them happened quickly, and I'd say that they have all been dead between 20 and 40 hours."

"Meaning they died not long before or after Captain Ward's final message," Commander Franks added.

"_Polowski_ to Rescue Team, what is your estimated time of access to the airlock?" Captain Cartwright asked, the static in his transmission somewhat lower.

Franks looked back to Lt. Hall, who did not look up from where he was cutting, but held up a hand with three fingers extended.

"Three minutes until we can attempt to open airlock one. We don't know whether or not the airlock itself is functional, nor do we currently know the condition of the Isolab airlock." Franks waited for some kind of acknowledgement from Cartwright, but when a few seconds ticked by and nothing came he continued his operation.

"Dr. Keenan, you and your team will wait in the airlock or the umbilical until you hear from me. It possible we will try to move everyone out of the Isolab, and back into the main hull before we worry about treating them. With all the debris flying around out there, I don't want to run the risk of losing anyone in the lab."

"There hasn't been a problem yet, and the ship has been here for days. Why worry about that now?" Rumone asked.

"Simple," Commander Franks replied, "we're here now, and if we all went into the Isolab to help these people it would be the absolute worst time for the lab to take a big hit, or be chopped off of the ship, which means it would probably happen then. When we have everyone in relative safety, you can worry about treating them, not before."

"I understand Commander." Dr. Keenan said.

The torches went silent, and Ensign Takagi called out, "We're through."

Franks drifted over as the engineers moved the blockage away from the airlock, and when they had rejoined him, he punched the OPEN button, and the doors parted easily.

"Franks to Cartwright, airlock one has opened with no trouble."

"Confirmed Commander. Proceed."

Commander Franks peered down the length of the umbilical. It was relatively roomy, with the power cables and air hoses in shielded pipes outside the tunnel. He pushed off with his left foot, and glided to the Isolab airlock, the two engineers coming after. As he floated through the umbilical, Franks noticed that there were dozens and dozens or plasma burns all over the tunnel. The medical team waited at the entrance to the umbilical.

"Franks to Cartwright. I'm in the umbilical. Looks like there was one hell of a firefight in here. There are phased plasma burns all over. If I had to guess, I'd say the source was the Isolab. I am proceeding with caution," the Commander reported, as he withdrew his own PPG.

Upon reaching the end of the umbilical, he opened the airlock, and found a slightly different configuration than what he was used to. The console displayed gravity controls. Franks had his team get as close to standing as they could, then hit the ENGAGE button, and an indicator light above the door came on, while Commander Franks landed solidly on his feet. The door to the Isolab opened, and a wall of moist air passed over the three rescuers. Commander Franks stepped inside and found eight forms, one lying down and one kneeling next to him. The rest were on their feet. One man approached them and offered his hand.

"Can you get your people out of the lab and into the _Lucent_?" Franks asked.

"Yeah, we can do that. Jason is hurt…we think pretty bad. It may not be a good idea to move him now…."

"We have to get him out of the lab before we can treat him."

"Well then I guess we'll move him."

Commander Franks and the engineers stepped aside and let the others move the wounded man to the gravity lock. They took him all the way to the_ Lucent_ without saying a word, and brought him inside. Franks heard Dr. Keenan suggest moving everyone away from the dead in the corridor, and then he was sure he heard one of the women crying. When everyone was through the gravity lock, Lt. Hall pointed at the ground and called Commander Franks attention to what he saw there.

Franks bent down and picked one of the dozens of objects up. It was power cap for a PPG.

Frank and the engineers joined the medical team and the survivors in a roomy hall near the center of the Lucent. Dr. Keenan was working on Jason, trying to stabilize him, and the other technicians were collecting blood and tissue samples from the rest while tending to smaller injuries.

Commander Franks drifted over to the man who had offered him his hand.

"Can you tell me what happened here?"

"Are you the captain?" he asked.

"No, I'm Commander William Franks, Executive Officer of the EAS _Polowski_. Captain Ben Cartwright is my CO."

"Well, I truly mean no disrespect Commander, but I'd rather tell this story once. I can't thank you enough for getting us out of here."

"Well, can you tell me whether or not it was something viral or contagious?"

"I'd love to but I can't say exactly what it was. All I can tell you is that it isn't here anymore. Oh and by the way, my name is Howard Taggart. I was the XO here, but I guess with everything that happened, I'm taking over as captain."

"What about all the shooting? Were there hostiles on board?"

Taggart scratched three days worth of stubble under his jaw, and looked off to Franks' left, at nothing in particular. "Yes," he said finally, "we had hostiles on board. We didn't know they were hostiles at the time, but…you know I'd really rather get into this when all the right people are around, and if you don't mind, after I've had something to drink and eat."

Franks nodded. He looked over to Dr. Keenan and asked if they were ready to move to the shuttle bay.

"He's very badly hurt," Keenan replied. "There is massive trauma to the internal organs. He has broken ribs, a collapsed lung and quite possibly a lacerated liver causing internal bleeding. If we move him it must be gently, but I don't imagine it would be any worse for him than just letting him lie here. We need to get him to surgery as soon as we get back to the _Polowski_."

Franks ordered everyone to the docking bay, and within minutes, the rescuers and the rescued were being secured into the shuttle. Ensign Peters began his tests on the samples taken from the _Lucent_'s crew, while Commander Franks started up the engines. As soon as the engines were hot, the shuttle bay gently decompressed, and the outer doors opened. Commander Franks spun around to face the exit and saw two of the Starfuries standing by outside the ship, waiting.

Ensign Peters hopped to the front of the shuttle and delivered his report.

"Everyone is clean of any kind of pathogen that we can detect with this equipment. We should be good to go when he hit the _Polowski_."

"Thank you, Ensign," Commander Franks said. He switched onto the open channel. "Survey One to _Polowski_; have retrieved the stranded crew and are standing by to return home. Stranded crew is clean of foreign bodies, and we request permission to dock immediately."

"Permission granted, Commander," was Cartwright's reply.

"Request full medical team be present at shuttle room. We have a serious injury. Dr. Keenan will accompany the injured crewman to the infirmary."

"Confirmed."

Commander Franks gunned the jets and pushed the shuttle out of the hangar. The fighters formed up with the shuttle, and all five crafts returned to the_ Polowski_. The medical team whisked away the injured man, whom Taggart identified as Jason Silverman. The rest were taken under armed escort to the galley for food, and were then placed in a conference room to await their debriefing. Commander Franks went straight to the bridge to meet with Captain Cartwright.

The captain was seated at his station reading over one report or another when the commander entered. Cartwright turned in his seat to look at Franks, and motioned him over to his station.

"Well done Commander," the Captain said. "Are our guests quiet?"

Franks glowed inwardly with the praise from his Captain, and answered, "Aye sir, they've all expressed their gratitude at the rescue, and Mr. Taggart is eager to speak with you about what happened. He said on the flight over that it could be the start of something big for Earth, but he wouldn't get into much more detail than that."

"A threat?"

"That was my impression, but I can't confirm that."

Captain Cartwright nodded. "Very well," he said, standing, "Have Dr. Keenan meet us for the debriefing in thirty minutes so we can find out what the devil has been going on out here."

Captain Cartwright, Commander Franks, Dr. Keenan and the shipboard xenobiologist, Lt. Hicks, all met with the surviving crew of the _Lucent_ in the largest of the briefing rooms. There was coffee all around, and some of the IPX personnel were still munching on things that they took with them from the galley. Normally Cartwright would have had the food removed, but in this instance he let it slide.

With the entrance of the Earthforce officers, Taggart stood up and spoke for the crew.

"You must be Captain Cartwright," at the captain's nod he offered his hand, which Cartwright accepted and firmly shook. "My name is Howard Taggart. I'm the xenoarchaeologist and first officer of the _Lucent_. This is my crew. Beverly Hanson, engineer; Sharon Fountain an environmental systems specialist; Mark Wolf, linguist; Andre Munder chief records officer; Andrew Vanderhoof, engineer; and Kenneth Savell, one of our cooks."

The Earthforce officers all inclined their heads at the introductions. Captain Cartwright presented Lt. Hicks to them. She cheerfully smiled and said hello to all.

"Please sit down Mr. Taggart," Cartwright said, "so we can talk about what happened to your ship."

"Of course," he said. "But, Captain, may I ask that this debriefing be recorded? I simply want a complete record of my experiences."

"Very well, I'll have one sent immediately." Cartwright paged the bridge, and had Ensign Thomas bring a recorder down.

"While we wait, why don't you tell me about the _Lucent_ herself. She looks to be quite a remarkable ship. I have never seen a private vessel with such advanced technology and equipment. I thought we had all of the best around here."

Taggart smiled. "The _Lucent_ was designed as a complete laboratory in space. IPX wanted to be able to exploit new technologies and chart planets all at once. She has, or had two Isolabs, one for organics and one for non-organics, and IPX had worked out an arrangement to distribute hyperspace beacons as we traveled about. Captain Ward was ex-EarthForce. He retired after the war, and was given the ship, but before we got permission to begin our mission, we had to agree to have an active EarthForce officer on board; Lt. Tsergov. We've been out here for about eight months, and haven't found much. The ship is capable of scanning almost an entire sector in a few days, and we have several new automated filtering systems, so that the crew doesn't have to constantly watch the monitors. Then there's the artificial gravity. We installed that during our last refit."

"Sounds impressive," Cartwright said just as Ensign Thomas entered with the recorder floating beside him. Cartwright dismissed him after collecting the control. He placed it on the table and slid it to Taggart who looked at the Captain with a puzzled expression.

"Don't worry, Mr. Taggart. You seem to mistrust the military, and if I were you I might be afraid of a cover-up as well. You have the control, and the device that will store the record of this meeting. Our ship's computer is also recording it, but that copy you can keep while in our care."

Taggart smiled to himself, and seemed to relax a bit. "Thank you Captain."

"So why don't you satisfy my terrible curiosity. Please, how did you and your crew come to such a desperate situation, and where is the rest of the ship's compliment?"

As he pushed the record button, Taggart took another sip of his coffee and looked around at the other survivors. Some of them nodded encouragement, and Beverly whispered, "go ahead" to him. He looked back at the captain, and took a deep breath, which he let out slowly.

"Well, as I'm sure you have figured out we were studying the wreckage from the battle, attempting to find out who was involved and so on. Lt. Tsergov was sure that the bulk of the wreckage was a Drakh fleet. He advised Ward to contact EarthForce but Ward ignored him. That was on Monday. There was a shuttle on one of the burning Drakh cruisers. It may have been launched accidentally, or as Clark and Ramirez speculated later, as a result of the IPX transmission to the _Lucent_. Captain Ward and Lt. Tsergov, as well as three guys from Acquisitions; Tomlin, Lewis and Bradley were their names I think, took one of our shuttles to pursue. Once they entered the asteroid cloud, we lost contact with them. Not sure why but there's something in the asteroids that's blocked all of our signals. The shuttle was out of contact for around fifty minutes. Then they popped up on our instruments and started hailing is.

"Ward said that there was a fight with the alien shuttle, and that it had attempted to ram them. The shuttle was damaged, and there was a blast hole in the fuselage. Lt. Tsergov was killed and blown out, into space, but everyone else was okay. Ward also had the alien shuttle in tow.

"The crew returned, and Ward placed a guard on the shuttle bay. He also said that he would be contacting IPX and EarthForce about the incident. I found out later that he was not communicating with Earth about our situation, instead he was reporting all normal. But like I said, I found that out later.

"On Tuesday, he had a small team going over the alien craft, and had the _Lucent_ continue to try and catalog the debris field, and uncover the identity of the unknown craft. He seemed much more interested in those pieces of debris than the Drakh craft. He also asked me to bring to his office the complete psychiatric evaluation for every member of the crew. I thought it was strange, but I wasn't suspicious at the time. Ward constantly had us doing strange tasks, really random stuff to keep us on our toes. We joked that he had gone senile and forgotten that he wasn't in EarthForce anymore. No offence."

"None taken," Commander Franks quipped.

"I brought him the files, and that's when we took a piece of the unknown alien craft aboard. I got caught up in analyzing it, and spent most of that day and the next paying more attention to it than to Ward and the rest of the shuttle crew. My mistake.

"Early on Thursday morning Ward woke me up and dragged me to the communications tower on the hump, and he showed me that someone had trashed the transmitters, the boosters, the decoders…everything. We were cut off. He then set me to try and find out who had done it. In the process of my investigation that morning, I discovered the false reports, and two communications from the captain's quarters to the alien craft in the hangar. I grabbed a few people and went down to the hangar to see what was going on. When I got there, it was still under guard. I asked to be admitted to the hangar and was denied access by the guards, citing orders from the captain that no one was to enter. So I persuaded them to let me in the only way I could think of; I used a pry-bar.

"Both of the _Lucent's_ shuttles were prepped for launch, and the alien shuttle was gone. As we were leaving the shuttle bay, we just missed running into a large group of people being herded in through another door. There were about twenty-five of them, and were being escorted by Tomlin, Lewis and Bradley. They were armed, so I ran to the security station and I got my group armed too. I thought we were being invaded by something and we were evacuating the ship. I had my guys split up to find everyone they could and get them ready to move out and I went to the bridge.

"When I got there the bridge crew was dead and the controls were smashed to hell. Ward was sitting in the Captain's chair and I asked him what happened. He looked at me and he seemed like he was in pain, and said, `Vindicta.' I don't know what he meant."

Cartwright's eyes narrowed at the foreign word uttered by the Ward. Taggart continued.

"After Ward said that he charged me and tried to strangle me. We fought and I caught him in his temple with my PPG. I checked him, to make sure he was alive. He was hurt, but breathing okay so I left him and started getting people together as I ran down to the shuttle bay. We were stopped by some kind of melee, and I saw blood on the walls. I don't know why but people were dying, killing.

"Ward's voice came over the PA, I guess it was maybe twenty minutes after we had fought, and he said that all of the selected had been secured in the shuttle, and that the rest could be destroyed. I think there were five of six of the crew who were with Ward by this point. They started beating people to death. A large group went to hide in Isolab Two, so they just blew it up. I think that was maybe thirty people or so, and lucky for us they used all of the explosives. Seven of us were stuck in Isolab One, when Jason managed to crawl in. He made eight. The others…the hostiles…came at us, and we used the PPGs to keep them away. We didn't want to shoot them, so we just shot around them and tried to look fierce. They paraded captured crewman before us and demanded that we give up. We said we would not, so Lewis lined those poor people up, and killed them one at a time until they had no one left. Captain Ward came by, said something like there wasn't time to deal with us, and gave them orders; our oxygen scrubbers were removed, and the door was sealed. We were left to die in the Isolab. A couple of days later, you found us."

"What was Captain Ward doing?" asked Franks.

"I don't know, Commander. It has something to do with the Drakh shuttle and whatever happened inside the asteroid cloud. Maybe the ship influenced Ward and the others, or drove them crazy or something. Maybe it was some kind of bug they picked up…I don't have any answers beyond knowing that whatever he was up to, Ward wanted it kept quiet, and there may be twenty-five more survivors somewhere in the inner part of this system. If I had to guess I'd say that's where Ward took them."

"That's quite a fantastic story, Mr. Taggart," Captain Cartwright said. "I assume that the rest of you have a similar story to report?"

The other survivors nodded or verbally confirmed that they agreed with Taggart's account of the last week.

"I was able to extract a similar story from Mr. Silverman in the infirmary," Dr. Keenan offered.

Cartwright cleared his throat and said, "Well, I'm not sure what I should do with you to be frank. My orders were to locate the crew and assure their safety. I have done that, and yet you are telling me that there may be more people alive. The _Polowski_ is too large to go into the asteroid cloud. All I can do is send fighters in, but you are also telling me that there is the potential for danger within the cloud, and I am not comfortable with sending the fighters into a combat situation without any support.

"We are currently awaiting the arrival of a second vessel. Upon her arrival I will make my decision, until that time I cannot send my pilots into the asteroid cloud. We will hold position here. I will give you quarters on board so you needn't return to the _Lucent_. There is no sense in going back there, unless there is something personal you want retrieved. We can have it brought over for y…"

Cartwright was interrupted by his link. "Cartwright, go ahead."

"Captain we have detected a small object on approach to the _Polowski_. It is registering as humanoid."

"Say again?!"

"There is a person out there, Captain, and he's heading our way."

"Scramble a shuttle and a flight of 'Furies. I'm on my way," Cartwright pounded his link and stood up. In two strides he was at the door and had ordered Lt. Hicks to find everyone a place to sleep.

Taggart turned the recorder off, and took another long sip from his coffee.

Cartwright and Franks arrived at the bridge and watched the launch of the Starfurys and shuttle. The fighters rocketed ahead to intercept the body, and determine any level of threat, while the shuttle plodded along after.

"How far away is the body?" Franks asked Ensign Thomas.

"Eight thousand meters, closing at one hundred ten meters a second. The Starfurys should have visual contact in two seconds."

"Show me what they see," Captain Thomas ordered.

"Aye sir, switching visual to Bravo One Guncam."

The command display filled with black space, and the spotlights of the Starfury hit upon the body. The static laden communication from the pilot drifted over the comm. lines, "This is Bravo One. I am matching velocity and rotation of the target." The stars spun wildly on the display, and the body drifted into view again, and turned gently right side up as the fighter began to revolve with it, making it appear still on the view screen.

"Bravo One to _Polowski_, are you receiving this?"

"Confirmed Bravo One," Ensign Thomas said, not taking his eyes from his own display, "We have your visual on screen here."

Commander Franks leaned in closer and said what everyone was thinking.

"We've found Lt. Tsergov."

No sooner had Commander Franks said his name, than the whole ship began to tremble. Ensign Thomas hit a button on his console.

"Captain! There's an energy spike…Z plus two hundred meters! Looks like a jump point!"

"Battle stations!" Commander Franks called.

"There's a ship coming through," Thomas called out.

Everyone watched the monitors and saw the ship exit hyperspace two hundred meters directly above the _Polowski_.

"I'll be damned," Captain Cartwright said.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Saturday, July 24th 2266

22:48 EST

Sector 1305, The Rim

"_Leviathan_ to _Polowski_, do you require assistance?" came the communication from the Destroyer as it finished exiting the vortex, and slowed to a stop around four hundred meters ahead of the _Polowski_.

Captain Cartwright cursed under his breath. "Affirmative, _Leviathan_. My bridge crew needs a change of pants after your grand entrance. You could have sent a little warning ahead that you were in the system."

"Negative _Polowski_, we were under orders not to transmit from hyperspace. What is your current status and situation?" was the static laced reply.

"The ship is fine. We have eight survivors from some kind of violent altercation on the _Lucent_. The shuttle and Starfurys you nearly ran over are retrieving another victim, possibly Lt. Tsergov, the Earthforce observer."

"Confirmed, _Polowski_. Captain Wallace requests permission to come aboard to personally consult on the situation."

Franks and Cartwright exchanged an uneasy look across the bridge, each recalling Wallace's reputation. "Permission granted. _Polowski_ out." Cartwright checked on the status of the shuttle and fighters and saw that they were all returning to the _Polowski_. He ran his fingers through his hair and turned away from the consoles.

"I didn't know Wallace was on the _Leviathan_. This changes things," Franks said.

"Not for us it doesn't," corrected Cartwright. "We did what we've been asked to do. There's a warship here now, and she can handle whatever may be in the asteroid cloud better than we can. We'll gladly transport the crew of the_ Lucent_ back to Proxima, but that is about all I want to do at this point. Ensign Thomas, have Captain Wallace meet with Mr. Taggart and myself in my office when he arrives. I'll be there until then. Dr. Keenan is to perform an autopsy on the body of Lt. Tsergov. I'd like to know what happened to him, so have Keenan keep me posted."

"Aye sir."

"Commander Franks, I'd like you to remain here and coordinate a gentle probe into the asteroid cloud using our instruments. No shuttles, no ROV's. Just see what you can see without getting too close."

"Yes sir. What do you think Wallace is going to do?"

"I'm sure Captain Wallace will prove sufficiently prudent and will take no inappropriate or unwarranted actions."

Commander Franks crossed the bridge to the Captain's station and leaned in close to Cartwright.

"Okay, what do you really think he's going to do?" he whispered.

Cartwright smiled and said, "If his reputation is not exaggerated, he will probably dive into the asteroid cloud guns blazing, but I'm hoping that we will not be around to find out."

Captain Wallace arrived at Captain Cartwright's office approximately twenty minutes later. Cartwright stood and they shook hands. Wallace was in his early forties, with a neatly trimmed beard that matched his bright red hair. His face was ruddy and resolute, with narrow, skeptical eyes.

"It's good to finally meet you, Captain," Wallace said as he pumped Cartwright's hand twice and released it. "It looks like you've found a real doozey of a puzzle here."

"Well, it has the potential to be as dangerous as it is perplexing. Have you been briefed on all of the recent developments?"

"Up to the point where we arrived, yeah I've read all the reports, and I watched the recorded statement. I wouldn't mind talking a little with the survivors of the _Lucent_, or at least this guy Taggart, if you don't mind."

"Mr. Taggart is on his way to join us. He'll be here shortly and you can ask him all the questions you like. I am curious, though. Given the information you already have, are you planning on entering the asteroid cloud?"

"Well, it's a little early to make that decision, but if I were forced to make it now, then yes I would. It's my guess, and I assume yours as well, that whatever happened and is happening out here is being caused by something within that mess. Citizens of the Earth Alliance, and an Earthforce officer are dead because of whatever is in there, and I intend to find it and either bring it out to be punished, or blast it so full of holes you'll be able to fit it in a pill box. Either way, it will involve us taking the fight to them."

"And I also assume that you will need the _Polowski_ to remain here to provide support."

"Well, I was going to ask you to stay. I can understand if you're not feeling particularly inclined to do so, and I'm sorry Captain Cartwright but I have a data crystal in my pocket with orders from General Muyat for you to remain in support of this mission until she feels that the threat is over. I'd be just as happy if I didn't have to use it, though."

Cartwright nodded. "I was fearful of such, but I'm not surprised. I just want you to know that this is an exploration and construction vessel, not a warship. I'll do all that I can to help, but the _Polowski_ isn't much more than a floating target in a fleet battle."

"Well you have my word Captain, we won't let it come to that. If things get hairy in there we're gonna need you to get the word out. Right now, just watch our back and make sure nothing jumps on it and we can call it square."

"Fair enough Captain Wallace."

The door chime interrupted the conversation. Cartwright ordered the door open, and Mr. Taggart and Commander Franks stepped into the office. After introductions, Captain Wallace cut right to the chase, asking Taggart about his story.

"You said in your statement that you were studying a piece of the unknown alien craft for at least what, eighteen hours?"

"Between eighteen and twenty, yes."

"Well, I'd like to know what you found. You don't have to get into specifics. I just want to know about these ships and maybe about the things that flew them."

"Well, much of what we found was inconclusive. We did find out that the fragment of hull we acquired had been frozen in the vacuum. We believe that the hull was meant to be heated in some manner. The freezing process made it brittle, and that's why there were no large pieces of them left when we arrived. The collisions with other debris had shattered them.

"We know that the hulls were strong, even slightly flexible. There are some strange magnetic and gravimetric properties associated with the fragments we had, but without a control piece, it's tough to know if these are innate properties of the sample or the result of some kind of contamination from space. My hunch is that it's about ninety percent innate and ten percent contamination. We believe that the Drakh may use energy weapons that are projected along with a magnetic containment beam to prevent the particles from separating and losing power over space.

"We don't know much about their weaponry, other than it seems powerful. It's at least as powerful as the Drakh weaponry."

"Do you think that these aliens could be the ones responsible for all this?" Wallace asked.

"I can't say. What I've found is just a glimpse of their shipbuilding and overall technology level. I have no way of knowing their intentions or attitudes toward us."

"And Captain Ward; do you know how long he was on the bridge after things started getting bad?"

"I have no idea. At least long enough to kill the bridge crew."

"And you are sure that there was no way he could send a signal from the ships transmitter?"

"I'm positive, Captain Wallace. I saw the damage myself, and it would have been impossible for Ward to have transmitted anything."

"So when he left the ship in the shuttles, he would have had the capacity to transmit again, at least locally."

"I would imagine."

Wallace drifted off, his eyes looking through the walls of the office. Taggart shifted uncomfortably in his seat and picked at one of his cuticles. He glanced at Captain Cartwright, who was looking at Wallace.

"There was something alive on the alien shuttle," Wallace blurted suddenly. "There must have been. The shuttle was guarded at all times, no one in and no one out. Ward transmitted to it twice, not the one time it would take to trigger the launch mechanism, but on two separate occasions, and I'm willing to bet that if we searched the _Lucent_ we would find only those missing that Mr. Taggart saw being escorted into the hangar, and the crew of the shuttle that went into the asteroid cloud, meaning the Drakh shuttle was manned, and left the _Lucent_ before all of the killing. There was something on the shuttle, possibly controlling the shuttle crew, that left before the chances of violence could threaten its own craft, and it went in telling the other ships within the cloud not to attack the following shuttles, since it couldn't transmit that signal from the _Lucent_."

"We might be able to find out more if we knew exactly who Ward had selected," Cartwright said.

"The psych evaluations," Taggart said, "We'd have to go back to the _Lucent_ and get into Ward's office to look through the reports, but if he separated them, we'd know who was missing and we might be able to determine why he selected them."

Cartwright's link sounded.

"Cartwright, go ahead."

"Captain this is Dr. Keenan. I've just completed a preliminary check of the body we retrieved. Visual records confirm that this is Lt. Tsergov, but there is something about him I think you should see for yourself."

Taggart caught another chill in his spine and shivered. Cartwright glanced at him and said, "I'm on my way Doctor." He tapped his link, ending the conversation, and looked at Wallace.

"You may as well come down too Captain. There's no sense a lot of needless repeating of the findings. Mr. Taggart, if you would like…"

"No," he interrupted. "No, I'll just go back to my quarters if that's all right."

Cartwright nodded and stood. Taggart walked out ahead of them and began wandering back to his tiny room. The two captains passed him, turned a corner and fell out of earshot quickly as they hurried deeper into the ship. As Taggart ambled along, he tried to place his finger on his unease, which had begun in earnest the moment he had seen the Drakh ships floating in space a week ago, and had not abated since. There were several times when he had toyed with the idea of making up another story about the _Lucent_, where the crew were all dead and there was no point in staying around to find out what happened, but Taggart knew deep down that the Earthforce people would see through it. He wished to himself that his part in it was done, and that he could get the hell out of here, but in the same part of his soul where the shivers came from, he knew that was not the case, and that for one reason or another, he and the others were supposed to be here for something.

Captain Cartwright followed Captain Wallace into the infirmary, and found the place to be practically deserted. Dr. Keenan appeared from one of the doorways and motioned for them to follow him. They did so, stepping past the recovery beds and into the primary examination room. Lying on the table was presumably the body of Tsergov, a light blue sheet draped over him.

"I cleared all of the non-essential personnel out of the place. I didn't want the ship to fill up with rumors about what people did and didn't see," Dr. Keenan explained as he placed examining gloves over his hands.

"Then there must be something pretty shocking beneath that sheet for such a precaution to be necessary Doctor," Cartwright said.

"I'll let you be the judge of that, Captain," Keenan said as he slid the sheet towards Tsergov's feet, leaving him uncovered to the waist. Cartwright flinched at the sight of Tsergov, but Wallace leaned in closer to the body. The skin was literally blistered to the point where it was now peeling off of the body. Bruising and swelling were apparent.

"The condition of Lt. Tsergov's epidermis is consistent with exposure to vacuum and extreme cold, and then warming to permit examination. What I want to show you is here," he pointed to Tsergov's right shoulder. The men moved to that end of the table and gazed in amazement at the body.

"This here," Dr. Keenan began, pointing at a severe burn above the clavicle between the arm and the neck, "is a phased plasma burn, extreme close range, and if my guess is right, self inflicted. I believe that he was trying to shoot this."

Dr. Keenan directed the Captains' attention to the place where Tsergov's shoulder met his neck. He placed his finger a few inches from the body, and poked the air there. A shimmering enveloped much of Tsergov's shoulder, as though they were looking at it through a heat distortion, and a blackish green mass appeared under Dr. Keenan's finger. It was perhaps the size of a man's fist, and had long, grasping tentacles that slid into the flesh along his chest, neck, and under him, probably into his back. Near the center of the mass was a half-closed eye, staring mutely back at them.

"What in the hell is that?!" asked Wallace, a considerable amount of disgust evident on his face.

"I don't know. I can tell you that it is alien, and that it is still alive right now in some way that I can't quite understand. When Tsergov was first warmed for the examination, and I found this creature as I was examining the PPG wound, it concealed itself within seconds of my disturbing it. Each time I touched the creature, it appeared, and faded from view slower than the last time. Now, it may not vanish again at all because I believe it is finally dying. I did not want to remove it before informing you, Captain, since I don't know what removal from the host will do to it."

"It stayed alive in space, with no air, no heat, for however long Tsergov was out there?" Cartwright asked.

"Yes sir."

"And do you have any idea how long that was?" asked Captain Wallace.

"No, exposure to the deep cold destroys a lot of the internal evidence. I have no way of knowing exactly how long he's been in the vacuum, or when exactly he died."

"Do you believe that this creature could be indigenous to deep space?" Cartwright inquired.

Keenan shook his head. "There is no evidence to support that, sir. I don't want to make any assumptions until I have a better look. If you gentlemen would care to remain while I remove the alien from Tsergov's body, you are welcome to do so."

"I don't think so Doctor. Keep me posted on what you find, but do not attempt the examination alone. Select two others to assist you, and one to observe from distance in case the creature is not dead, or is able to somehow influence you. Your instructions are to terminate the alien with extreme prejudice in the event of any kind of aggressive movement," Cartwright said.

"Aye sir," responded Keenan.

Wallace turned to Cartwright.

"If you don't mind, I'm going to head back to my ship and organize a boarding party for the _Lucent_ to see if we can get those files from Ward's office. Let's say we swap what we find out in two hours?"

"Fine, Captain. I'll have the layout of the _Lucent_'s decks sent over to your ship."

Cartwright walked Wallace out of the infirmary and to the doors to the car that would take him to the hangar section of the _Polowski_. He then yawned in spite of himself, and returned to the bridge. When he arrived, Commander Franks was bent over a console with Ensign Thomas, studying something. He walked to his chair and sat down heavily, letting a small sigh escape him as he raised his fingertips to the sides of his head and began massaging his scalp.

"Captain, what's the good word?" Franks asked after a polite amount of time had passed.

"Despite my wishes and best efforts, we're not going anywhere for a while. Captain Wallace is going to board the _Lucent_ and see if we can acquire a manifest of the missing crew, while our good doctor continues his examination of the late Lt. Tsergov. There are some interesting anomalies on his person that demand attention. What is the status of your current endeavor Commander?"

"Well, we've had very little success learning anything through our instruments. There is something in the rocks out there that is confusing and blocking our scans. Right now enhanced visual is about as good as we can get, and the cloud is too dense to see through. We've been looking since you left with no successful identifications of anything other than asteroids.

"We've also had two impacts in the hull from small objects moving at high speeds. One punctured the ship, and we lost pressure in the compartment just before engineering, but we've got it patched now. The longer we spend here, though, the more shots we'll take."

"You're right Commander. Ensign Thomas, inform the _Leviathan_ that we are moving approximately three thousand meters to port. Take us to thirteen kilometers from the _Lucent_ and maintain twelve kilometers from the asteroid cloud."

"Aye sir."

"Has the boarding crew left the _Leviathan_ yet?"

Thomas pressed his earpiece to his head, listening, then turned to Cartwright. "Looks as though the shuttle is being launched now, sir. As well as a fighter escort."

Cartwright nodded. He punched up the image on his own console and watched the ships maneuver through the debris. Several times his head nodded forward, and his eyes slid slowly closed, but each time he shook himself awake. Finally, his eyes shut and didn't snap open.

Cartwright looked up from his console and checked the bridge crew. No one seemed to have noticed his lapse, but he wasn't sure how long he'd nodded off for.

"I'm going to get some coffee. Commander, continue attempting to identify anything within the cloud, and remain on caution. We have to be prepared to assist the _Leviathan_ if she needs us. If Dr. Keenan checks in, I want his report straight away," Cartwright said.

"Aye sir, right away."

The captain left the bridge and headed down towards the galley to get a pot of coffee on. As he passed one set of corridors nearly identical to the rest he saw a dark shape leaning against a bulkhead, still and silent. Cartwright felt goose-bumps rise on his arms and neck, and he took a cautious step forward.

"Identify yourself, soldier!" Cartwright demanded.

The dark figure lurched forward, still leaning against the wall and sliding along it like some wounded animal.

"I said identify yourself!" Cartwright shouted, nervous sweat beading on his eyebrows.

The person slid into the light from the overhead bulb as the captain took a defensive step back. He watched as the blistered and torn face of Lt. Tsergov appeared from the shadows. It took another step forward and Cartwright backed into the wall of the corridor. The body of Tsergov was naked, and the green-black blot on his shoulder was apparent, its single red eye glaring and glowing dimly in the darkened corridor. The tentacles were waving with agitation. One of them slapped Tsergov's eye from its socket, the orb bursting and dripping down the young Lieutenant's face. The corpse shambled forward another step, and its arms raised and grasped Cartwright's shoulders. The captain struggled against the icy grip of the cadaver, and felt the tentacles from the alien slapping his face and hands. One of them shot under the skin of his scalp and Tsergov's lips parted. Rancid air leaked out as he whispered a single word to the struggling captain.

"Vindicta."

Captain Cartwright screamed and flailed madly, banging his head on the console and drawing the entire bridge crew to his chair.

"Are you alright captain?!" asked Commander Franks with deep concern apparent on his face and in his voice.

Cartwright looked around, his brain confused by the sudden change of location. He was on the bridge, but the memory of Lt. Tsergov in the corridor was burned into his mind. His heart was racing and his breath was irregular and ragged. He quickly calmed himself when the truth of the matter became apparent.

"Yes…I'm fine. I must have nodded off. Had a bad dream is all. What's our status?"

The crew returned to their stations and Franks delivered his report.

"The boarding party has returned to the _Leviathan_ and I was just about to remind Dr. Keenan that he has thirty minutes left until he is to deliver his report to yourself and Captain Wallace. We have had no success in seeing beyond the asteroid cloud."

"Very good Commander. I'm going to my office to get myself back together." He thought about going to get some coffee, but changed his mind. "Have some coffee brought to me there."

Cartwright walked to his office, with his head down and his eyes locked on the floor. He entered his office and turned on every light he had, and sat down in his chair. He wanted to think that the dream was just a product of stress and seeing the alien parasite on Tsergov, but there was something deep inside the captain that would not let him dismiss it so easily.

The door chime went off, and Cartwright's coffee was delivered. He drank the first cup black and steaming hot. He closed his eyes and made an effort to drive the thoughts away. With the lights on and a hot cup of coffee in his hands, the dread seemed to recede and Cartwright was able to place it behind him. By the time Captain Wallace and Dr. Keenan arrived to share their findings, Cartwright was able to laugh it off as a nightmare, and shared the joke with Wallace and Keenan.

Once everyone had a cup of coffee and had their reports ready, Wallace began.

"We found Captain Ward's office without any problem, and it looks like Mr. Taggart was right on the money. We found twenty-two reports on Ward's desk, and the rest of them were scattered on the floor. We took the twenty-two files and have been going over them trying to find some kind of common factor between all of the individuals. So far all we have been able to find is that they are all relatively young, between 25 and 30, and they have all been through the Psi Corps screening process. The evaluations do not disclose the results of the tests, so some may have been telepathic. It's unlikely that all of theme were though.

"We also found crewmen scattered throughout the ship, beaten to death. So that much of Taggart's story checks out as well. Seeing this I tend to believe the rest of his story. It looks like we have some kind of subversion of certain members of the _Lucent_'s crew, and the subsequent murder and kidnapping of the rest."

"But we still don't know what happened to Ward and the crew of the shuttle that went into the asteroid cloud."

"I believe I may have an idea, Captain," Dr. Keenan said, "based on what I found on Lt. Tsergov."

"Go ahead doctor," Cartwright said, taking another sip of coffee.

"The creature attached to Lt. Tsergov is definitely some kind of parasite. It has a contained blood supply, and no specific digestive tract that I can find. It can apparently steal whatever energy it needs from the host in a refined form. What I mean to say is, it doesn't need to eat, it can simply take the life energy of the host. This also means that the creature must be born while attached to a host, or it will have no way to feed itself."

"Is that what the tentacles are for?" Wallace asked.

"Partly. The tentacles also contain a dense network of nerve cells. These cells have exceptionally long ganglia, and at the cellular level actually extend outside the body of the creature. This gives it the power to access the nerve center of the host, in this case, Lt. Tsergov's brain and spinal cord."

"Are you saying that it could read his mind?" Cartwright asked, placing his cup down.

"Yes. I believe that these parasites are also capable of transmitting thoughts to the host, and even bypassing voluntary functions. They might be able to cause the host to act, without the host's permission or cooperation."

"So if Captain Ward and the shuttle crew were all hosting these parasites, they may not have been responsible for their own actions?"

"Correct Captain Wallace. There is a nerve cluster near to the eye, separate from the brain that I cannot identify a purpose for. My theory is that it is an advanced transmitter / receiver for the creatures to use to communicate with one another. I'm not sure how that communication would take place. Perhaps there is a color pattern language. Their eye is at least as sensitive to color as our own. Their intelligence is undeniable, but I have no idea what their motives are.

"They may have found a way onboard the shuttle, attached themselves to the crew, and no one would have known. Their camouflage is perfect. I have a series of tissue samples being analyzed now to determine how the creature is able to bend light around it, but when the camouflage is up, there is no way to visually detect them."

"It would explain Ward's behavior after his return. Dr. Keenan, check each member of the team that extracted the survivors, and check each of the survivors themselves for the presence of these parasites. Captain Wallace I suggest you do the same with your crewman who boarded the _Lucent_," Cartwright said. Captain Wallace jumped on his link. "Doctor, is there a chance of contamination from Tsergov?"

"No Captain I don't think so. I have not been able to locate any kind of reproductive system. I'm not sure how they reproduce. At any rate, the one in the infirmary is quite dead and under guard."

"What about Tsergov. According to what Ward told Taggart upon his return to the _Lucent_, Tsergov was blown into space when the shuttle was hit. We have seen Tsergov, and Taggart confirmed that there was blast damage to the shuttle, but Tsergov is in much too good a condition physically to have been near a high-energy weapon impact. What really happened to him?"

Dr. Keenan shuffled a few films. "Cause of death on my report will officially be death by exposure to vacuum and asphyxiation. The PPG burn on his shoulder is self-inflicted, but that's really all I know. There was a small amount of bruising of the trachea, so he may have been strangled at some point, but it was not severe enough to kill him. I can't be sure how he got into space."

Cartwright nodded and rubbed his temples while he waited for Captain Wallace to finish delivering instructions to Commander Brooks, his first officer. When he had finished he switched off his link, and looked at Cartwright.

"So, Captain, what do we do?" he asked.

"Well, if it were my decision, I would wait for a few more ships to arrive, and start carefully plotting an exploration of the asteroid cloud. I would also notify the ISA about the incident."

At the mention of the Interstellar Alliance, Captain Wallace began shaking his head. "No I disagree with the ISA. We don't need their help with this. If we tell them what happened, and this being unclaimed territory, they're going to come out here and take over the whole show. We were taking care of things okay before the ISA, and we'll continue to do so in spite of them."

"You asked me, I gave you my recommendation."

"Well, I'll tell you what I intend to do. I'm going to take a peek inside that asteroid cloud. Commander Brooks is confident she can plot a course in hyperspace to drop us on the other side of the asteroids, and I believe she can do it. She's never let me down before. We'll jump in, take a look around and jump out again. If all looks quiet we'll keep doing this and staying for longer periods of time until we can track Captain Ward. The _Polowski_ will maintain her position, and begin transmitting our findings to Earthdome, and make sure nothing sneaks up on us."

"Captain Wallace, with the interference from the asteroids, even if something were to attack us, how would we let you know? How could we warn you? I do not think taking the _Leviathan_ into the asteroid cloud is a wise course of action."

"I can't send in fighters without support. We're just going to pop in and out the first time. If you have to get a message to us, fire on one of the large asteroids. I'll put an ensign on the scanners and have him keep and eye out for it. I want to see for myself what is in there."

Cartwright sighed, knowing that they were moments away from Wallace reminding Cartwright that he was in charge of the mission now. Before it got to that, he conceded.

"Very well Captain. Good luck. Doctor, place Lt. Tsergov and the alien specimen into cold storage and get the infirmary back up to speed."

All three men stood and Dr. Keenan left followed by Captain Wallace. Before the door closed Captain Wallace stopped and turned around. From the doorway he said, "I gave you my word that I wouldn't let anything happen to your crew, and I meant it Captain Cartwright. I do not take this action lightly, and I assure you that I do not intend to engage anything unless I am fired upon. And I think we can handle a Drakh shuttle if it should come to that. In the event we do have to engage the enemy, I want the _Polowski_ to jump immediately to hyperspace, and rendezvous with us at the hyperspace beacon the _Lucent_ put down. Five minutes after you receive confirmation of our engagement, if we aren't there, proceed at best speed to the nearest Earthforce station, and send in the cavalry."

Cartwright nodded. "I would just as soon not take the risk in the first place, Captain, but if you get into a scrape, I won't let you fight it alone. Unless things appear well and truly beyond the ability of both ships to handle, we'll be here for you."

"Thank you, Captain Cartwright," Wallace said as he stepped away from the door, and allowed it to slip closed.

When Cartwright had confirmation that Captain Wallace had left the bridge, he paged Commander Franks. "Commander, sound general quarters once Captain Wallace departs. I have a feeling he's about to kick over a very large anthill."

Preparations aboard the _Polowski_ took less than half an hour. All of the Starfurys were prepped and ready, all of the gun batteries were charged and manned and Commander Franks had only to press a single button and the defense grid would come online. The ship hung silent as the crew waited for the _Leviathan_ to make her move. Captain Cartwright had explained the situation to his crew, and most of them were in agreement with the Captain that this was probably not a smart idea. They grimly went about their tasks, but there was a certain quality aboard the ship; a nervous tension that made people smile quickly, because they didn't know what else to do.

On the bridge, Cartwright paced around his station, and Commander Franks fidgeted in his chair. Ensign Thomas broke the quiet by announcing an increase in the _Leviathan_'s energy output. He began to go down the familiar list of system activations as each part of the _Leviathan_ came alive on his sensors; targeting, weapons, defense grid and lastly the jump engines.

As they all watched on the monitors, the vortex opened up before the Destroyer, and it slipped into hyperspace. The vortex collapsed and in that instant, Cartwright felt a chill, and the thought of being out here alone seized his heart, and squeezed.

"How long was the first pass supposed to take?" asked Commander Franks.

"He was never specific, but it will take at least long enough for the jump engines to recharge, and long enough to satisfy his curiosity. Is there any signal from the _Leviathan_?"

"No sir, if they're out of hyperspace, we can't read them," Ensign Thomas reported.

Cartwright resumed his pacing as the minutes slipped by. After almost ten minutes of silence, Ensign Thomas alerted the bridge to another vortex forming off the bow of the _Polowski_. All eyes darted to consoles, and there was a tangible release of tension as the _Leviathan_ exited from the vortex.

"_Leviathan_ to _Polowski_, this is Captain Wallace. We have penetrated the asteroid cloud and begun a survey of the area. We detected energy signatures from within the orbit of the second planet, and also found a debris trail that could be consistent with wreckage from a shuttlecraft. We attempted to trace the wreckage to its source, but were unable to do so, due to the proximity of two vessels that appeared from within the orbit of the second planet. We withdrew, and will approach from another direction. Estimate another ten minutes within the cloud for second trip, then we'll return to this position."

"What about those ships that spotted you? They'll be looking now. I don't think you should go back…"

"Understood, Captain. We'll be careful. _Leviathan_ out."

The Destroyer turned gracefully back towards the asteroid cloud, and opened another jump point. Once the ship had vanished, Cartwright sat calmly in his chair, and turned to the Commander.

"Activate the defense grid, Commander, and give me fire control on the forward batteries."

Commander Franks looked up from his console. "Sir?"

"My orders were clear, Commander. Proceed."

Franks activated the grid, and interceptors popped up along the hull of the _Polowski_ at strategic points. On Captain Cartwright's command console, a graphic of the forward battery power readings, temperature and fire controls appeared. He rested his hand gently next to the controls.

"Do you know something the rest of us don't, Captain?" Commander Franks asked.

"Just a hunch Commander. Ensign Thomas, prepare to open a jump point behind us, and get the engines ready for a full reverse burn."

"Aye sir."

Captain Cartwright issued all of these orders without once looking away from his console, or elevating his voice above a normal conversational tone. Commander Franks thought to himself that this was typical of the Captain when he was expecting trouble. He sat down in his chair and buckled himself in.

Once again an eerie pause settled on the bridge, as the crew awaited word from the _Leviathan_. The minutes seemed to stretch on into hours, when Ensign Thomas' console beeped.

"There's an energy spike…a jump point, dead ahead and two hundred meters above us. It's the _Leviathan_!" Thomas called out.

"She's three minutes early," muttered Franks.

The ship emerged from the vortex with tremendous speed, zipping along above the _Polowski_.

"Captain, I'm reading damage to the _Leviathan_, several holes in her hull and fires aboard!" Ensign Thomas reported.

"This is Commander Brooks of the _Leviathan_. We are being pursued by Drakh Raiders and possibly a Drakh Cruiser." She cried over the comm channel.

"Understood, Commander. Stay on course and maintain speed," Captain Cartwright instructed. He turned to Ensign Thomas. "Open the jump point Ensign."

Thomas nodded, and activated the _Polowski_'s jump engines. The vortex opened behind the _Polowski_, directly ahead of the speeding _Leviathan_. The Destroyer barely had to adjust her course to line up on the entrance to hyperspace.

Cartwright stayed focused on the now closing jump point of the _Leviathan_. Sure enough, as it closed several ships slipped through. Cartwright had never seen them before, but the computer instantly identified them as Drakh Raiders. As soon as the jump point finished closing, Captain Cartwright opened fire with the _Polowski_'s forward weapons. Two twin particle beams sliced through three of the five emerging craft. The remaining two veered off from their pursuit.

"Full reverse Ensign, back us into the vortex!" shouted Cartwright. The _Polowski _began to slowly back towards the jump point, her forward pulse cannons and interceptors laying down suppressing fire to keep the Drakh ships from getting off a clean shot. One of the Raiders swung about and charged the _Polowski_. Captain Cartwright tried to lock on with the particle beams, and fire before the ship could pull into range, but the craft was too nimble. The beams struck a glancing blow, but apparently disabled the guidance system of the Raider. It began to tumble wildly towards the bow of the _Polowski_.

"Sir, the forward batteries are drained, we're pulling too much power to keep the jump point open," Commander Franks said.

"Brace for impact!"

Franks sounded the impact alarm on the ship, and everyone held on as the tumbling Drakh ship crashed into the forward section of the _Polowski_. It exploded on impact, wrecking the support craft, docking bays and Starfury bays all located in the front of the ship. The ship rocked from the impact, and the support beams between the gravity section and the forward section bent, but held together.

"Damage report!" Cartwright shouted above the alarms.

"Forward weapons destroyed, forward defense grid down. Fighters, shuttles, everything in the forward launch and cargo bays is probably fragged." Franks reported.

Ensign Thomas interrupted, "The collision has pushed us off course. We are moving to correct but it could take as long as twenty seconds to get to the jump point. There's another spike off of the bow, fifteen hundred meters ahead. Looks like the Cruiser Commander Brooks was talking about."

"Damnit to hell," Cartwright muttered, "we can't turn around to expose the aft weapons without giving them a target three miles long. Stay on course Ensign."

The sleek and sinister Drakh Cruiser advanced on the _Polowski_ at full speed. It closed to within one thousand meters. The _Leviathan_ slowed to a stop just before entering the vortex.

"Captain Cartwright," came Commander Brook's voice over the speakers on the bridge of the _Polowski_, "fire in the hole; hang onto something."

As the _Polowski_ slipped closer, and began to enter the vortex, the aft weapons of the _Leviathan_ opened fire on the Cruiser. The Drakh ship, after closing to within eight hundred meters, was blown back by the heavy weapons of the Destroyer, its bow disintegrating from the high-energy beams. The two Earth Alliance ships then darted through the vortex and into hyperspace.

"Many thanks Commander Brooks. How badly are you hurt?"

"We were ambushed by around a dozen Raiders and two Cruisers. We have fires on several decks and more casualties are being reported all the time. Captain Wallace is currently in the infirmary with two broken arms and a cracked sternum."

"We should head back to…"

"Captain!" Ensign Thomas shouted, interrupting Cartwright.

"Standby Commander," he turned to face Thomas. "What is it Ensign?"

"I'm tracking a disturbance in hyperspace."

"I assume since you picked this moment to bring it to my attention that there is something unique about this disturbance."

"It's following us sir."

Cartwright looked around the bridge, almost like he was looking at it for the first time. A pounding fear broke out in his chest, stealing his breath. "Show me." He managed to croak, as he turned to his console.

The grainy image of hyperspace appeared on Captain Cartwright's monitor. He couldn't see anything strange and then a flicker of motion caught his eye.

"Disturbances are increasing, sir. I'm detecting two vessels moving out of the disturbances. Configuration unknown."

Cartwright watched the ships just appear in hyperspace without the benefit of a vortex. They simply shimmered into being, their long black spines drifting lazily through the currents to bear down on the _Polowski_. They were large ships, and black against the shifting reds and yellows of hyperspace, their long arms seeming to reach out to grasp the ships in their path.

"What the hell are those?!" shouted Commander Brooks across the open channel.

Commander Franks moaned, "They look like some kind of nightmare."

As the two vessels flew by, there was a screaming inside Captain Cartwright's head so powerful that he thought his mind would melt and leak out through his ears. The dark, spidery vessels banked around and each emitted a single purple beam from within the central part of the hull, and began cutting the _Polowski_ to pieces.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Sunday, July 25th 2266

03:12 EST

Sector Epsilon Eridani, Babylon 5

"The signal came through about two minutes ago. It's relatively short and it only repeated once, before it stopped," said the pretty, red haired Lieutenant as Lt. Commander Corwin approached her station. "There is a lot of interference and background noise. I don't think they were boosting their signal at the source, which would cause all of the echoing and distortion."

"But that also means that they were doing a local blanket transmission. The signal may not be intended for us. Have you run it through the filters and enhancers?"

"Aye sir, it's still faint, but I'm pretty sure it was meant for us," she said as she keyed up the message on her console. "It's audio only, but that's enough to get the point across."

She touched a few more buttons on her console and the message played over the speakers in C&C.

_….any Earth Alliance vessel or station within range of this transmission. This is Commander Leila Brooks, EAS _Leviathan_. We are under attack by Drakh warships and two unidentified vessels assisting the Drakh. The battle…shifted…hyperspace. EAS _Polowski_ severely damaged…orarily unable to render aid. Approaching hyperspace beacon 8712-A65-RD, please assist. Mayday, mayday, may…."_

The transmission ended with a high-pitched scream/shout that drowned out Commander Brooks. Corwin's face paled noticeably, and his mind flashed back to a time a few years ago, when the station had been filled with screams like that. It was just before Captain Sheridan attacked Z'ha'dum, when the Shadows had finally come to Babylon 5.

"Get Captain Lochley up here," he said, his lips and throat suddenly very dry.

Lt. Sloan looked at Corwin, "Surely she's asleep by now."

Corwin left Sloan's station and walked briskly to the entrance to C&C. "Well you had better wake her up, Lieutenant," he said, annoyance clear in his voice. He was still bitter about how many officers in the Earth Alliance still didn't know about the events here at Babylon 5 during the Shadow War. Lt. Sloan was on Earth during the conflict, and thanks to Clark's media blackout and disinformation campaign, she had no idea the magnitude of what that sound could mean.

"Commander where are you going?!"

"To find someone who might be able to help those people, but if that last sound is what I think it is, chances are they're already dead," he said as the doors closed behind him. He jogged to the lift and rode it down to the core shuttle, which he took all the way to Brown Sector. He then took the lift deep into the station. He exited on the twelfth level, and stepped inside of a dubious looking bar called _Heels on the Deck_.

As soon as he stepped inside, the conversation within the bar all but died. Earth Force personnel were very, very rare here, and they were always looking for someone. Corwin scanned the bar looking for his quarry, and spotted them sitting in the darkest part of the room, backs to the rear wall. He took two steps toward the table in the back when a large, reeking Drazi stumbled into him. Corwin placed a hand out to stabilize himself, and jostled a few more patrons, who immediately rose and surrounded the Lt. Commander.

"You watch yourself Earther," slurred one of the two Drazi in the group of four that now encased the Commander.

"Yes, be careful, or we help you to door," said another.

Corwin, in no mood to put up with this now, brought his link up, and moved to activate it when he was roughly grabbed from behind.

"No, you no can call for help, Human. We help you plenty," said the first Drazi.

Now that he was in trouble, Corwin wished he had thought to bring a weapon of some kind. There was no way he could fight off four Drazi alone.

"You are mistaken on two counts, Commander Corwin," came a voice from the shadows in the rear of the bar. "Firstly, there are five Drazi about you, two with knives that they intend to use. Secondly, you are not alone."

The Drazi turned back to see the two men from the table standing, and approaching the brewing melee. They walked with a great deal of confidence right up to the physically larger Drazi, and pushed their way next to the Corwin. They both wore deep hoods that hid their faces, and long cloaks that masked their movements.

One of them said, "This is an important Earth Alliance officer. If you beat, or even worse, kill him, Mr. Allen will almost assuredly clean this place out, and I will see to it that he finds each and every one of you, tied and bleeding outside his office before a full day has passed."

The Drazi snickered, and one of them threw a punch at the speaker. The speaker's companion reached out, grabbed the Drazi's wrist and diverted the blow into a third Drazi. Corwin was released as the drunken aliens attempted to close in on the hooded men. Before Corwin had even stumbled back and raised his arm to activate his link, the Drazi were all on the ground senseless. He lowered his link as the two hooded men approached him.

"Come Commander, we must return you to your element. No harm done, no retribution required from station security, correct?" said one.

"I suppose. Thank you gentleman," Corwin managed to say.

The two hooded figures each took one of Corwin's arms, and escorted him out of the bar. As they walked to the lift the figure that had not spoken yet whispered to the Commander, "And to what terrible news do we owe thanks for your interruption Commander?"

"I'm sorry Captain McCloskey but I needed to get you immediately. The usual channels take too long," Corwin said.

"Well, perhaps we should develop a more subtle direct means of communication for the Commander, Douglas," said the other, who tossed the hood on his robe back to reveal Minbari features. Captain McCloskey did the same, smoothing his brown hair with his hands and staring down Corwin with his gray eyes.

"This had better be good, Commander. I was about to beat Dubaar here in a very important game of Stones."

The Minbari shook his head, "I'm sorry you think so, but Lt. Commander Corwin only assisted you by preventing a rather embarrassing collapse of your defenses."

"Yeah, well we'll see," Captain McCloskey said, without the whimsical tone that Dubaar had taken. "The only way you can beat me is to peek at my hand," he said, tapping his temple with his index finger.

"I am deeply offended that you believe I would invade your privacy for the sake of a simple game of Stones. I needn't remind you that there are stiff regulations regarding when I can or cannot scan someone when we are not on ISA business."

"You're right. You remind me plenty, Dubaar, especially when I really need someone scanned."

All three men stepped into a lift that would take them to the core shuttle.

Corwin cut right to the chase, interrupting their argument, "We received a transmission around fifteen minutes ago from an Earth Force Destroyer out on the Rim. They were under attack by the Drakh and I'm positive I head a Shadow Ship in the background. The time differential makes this news around four hours old."

"Surely the Earth Alliance will send vessels to investigate. What can we do?" asked Dubaar.

"The EA is spread thin right now. We can probably be there before any of the other ships nearby can. That is what you're going to ask us to do, isn't it Commander Corwin? You'd like us to investigate this?" McCloskey said.

"Well, I assumed that since I heard the Shadow ship…"

"Or what you thought was a Shadow vessel. The Shadows are gone, Commander. I was there when they left."

"I know but even on the smallest chance that some remained…."

Captain McCloskey grasped Corwin's arm below the shoulder, "David," he said cutting off the Commander, "we will go. You had us at the Drakh attack. I just don't want you jumping to conclusions about the Shadows. We'll pull together some reinforcements on the way and look into this. Do you know where the ship was when it transmitted last?"

"Yes," Corwin said, relief easing a few of the worry lines that now permanently decorated his face most days. "Near the Rim, in sector 1305. They were in hyperspace."

"We'll leave immediately. No doubt Captain Lochley will request that warships from the patrol groups near Centauri space break off to investigate, but we should still arrive before them," Dubaar said.

"Thank you; both of you," Corwin said as the lift stopped.

"Not to worry, Commander Corwin. I'm actually looking forward to it. Things around here have gotten downright boring, and there are few things more pitiful than a bored Ranger," quipped Captain McCloskey.

Corwin nodded and stepped off of the lift. He turned around and said, "Would you like me to inform Captain Lochley that I've dispatched you to investigate?"

McCloskey looked at Dubaar, who had turned to look at him. With nothing but a glance exchanged between them, they both looked back at Corwin.

"You must do what you feel is right, Commander," Dubaar said. "But if there is something there that warrants closer attention…"

"We'd rather the backup arrive sooner than later," McCloskey said, finishing Dubaar's hanging thought.

"Understood. Thank you gentlemen," Corwin said. The doors to the lift closed and the two Rangers stepped back to the rear of the car. As they rode down, back to Brown Sector, they replaced their hoods and stood silent, each one reflecting on what Commander Corwin's cryptic news could mean, and neither one disturbing the thoughts of the other until the lift stopped.

Dubaar turned to McCloskey and whispered, "What do you imagine we will find?"

"Trouble," the human Ranger said.

Captain Lochley listened intently to the recorded message for the second time. She was dressed in her uniform, and from head to toe she betrayed no sign that only twenty minutes ago she had been sound asleep.

"Have there been any further communications from the _Leviathan_ or the _Polowski_?" she asked.

"No, Captain. Nothing."

"They're too far out for our Starfurys to assist. Transmit the signal to Earth Dome with the following report. 'Babylon 5 has received transmission and is forwarding request for aid to Destroyer group Delta 2, on patrol near the Centauri border.'"

"Aye, sir," Lt. Sloan said as she began to transmit the messages.

Commander Corwin burst into C&C. He trotted around the pit to come to Lt. Sloan's station.

"How long do you figure it will take to get any of our ships out there to them?" asked Commander Corwin.

"I don't know. Assuming they are even able to respond, it could be an entire day, maybe two. There is the chance that an ISA ship would have picked up the signal and responded, but we can't count on the ISA."

"I wouldn't say that Captain. I think help may already be on the way."

"Are you telling me that you told _him_ about this?"

"I believe that the Rangers are uniquely suited for a mission like this. With all respect, Captain, you weren't out here when the war was going down, and you haven't worked with the Rangers like I have. They're the best at what they do, and the best chance for getting anyone off of the _Leviathan_ alive."

"They are reckless, and they do not follow my orders. That kind of help we don't need," Lochley said sternly.

"Captain Lochley, I heard a Shadow vessel at the end of that message. No one knows better what these ships are capable of better than McCloskey. He has combat experience against them, and he's the Captain of a Whitestar. No ship in the EA fleet has a better chance against an unknown enemy than one of those ships, and if it is a Shadow ship then even the Whitestar may not be enough."

"Captain," Lt. Sloan interrupted them, "Captain McCloskey's shuttle is requesting permission to leave the docking bay. Shall I hold him?"

Lochley looked at Corwin, who raised his eyebrows and returned her stare.

"He can go. I have no official reason to hold him," she said at last. Corwin broke a small smile but Lochley rounded on him quickly. "However, Commander, we are going to have a new understanding around here. The Rangers, however helpful you have found them in the past, are no longer to be used to handle Earth affairs. As the CO of Babylon 5, I will be the one to decide if and when we require help from the Rangers or the ISA, and how that help will be applied and asked for. Is that clear, Commander?"

"Aye ma'am. As a bell," Corwin replied, snapping to full attention.

"Very good. Keep me posted to any developments. I'm going back to bed," Lochley said. She turned and left C&C, not looking back.

Corwin looked out the huge observation window into space, and saw the Rangers' shuttle entering the Whitestar. Her original designation was Whitestar 3, but the Captain, along with most of the other human captains of the surviving Whitestars, had renamed the ship after the battle of Coriana VI. The Minbari did not rename the Whitestars under their commands, however, creating what outsiders to the ISA might see as a separating of the Minbari and Human Rangers. Despite the choice to rename or not rename the ships, no division in the Rangers was present.

Captain McCloskey's ship, the _Valiant _as he had christened her, spun quickly once the shuttle was aboard, and zipped towards the jumpgate.

"Good luck, Captain," Corwin said, as the vortex opened and the ship vanished into hyperspace.

Rushing through hyperspace, the _Valiant _cruised towards the Rim of known space. On board, Captain McCloskey talked with Dubaar about who was available to assist him on this mission.

Dubaar flipped through some assignment reports, and cleared his throat.

"Well, out with it. I can't read your mind, Dubaar," McCloskey said.

"The pool from which we may draw accompaniment is small, Captain. There is much afoot it would seem, with the Raider attacks near the Brakiri border. It's drawing a lot of our more offensively oriented craft. However, there are three ships that have agreed to accompany us, and will rendezvous with the _Valiant_ along the next few hyperspace beacons." Dubaar's eyes dropped to the schedule again. "There is Whitestar 33 under the command of Alyt Rewenn, the heavy scout ship _Farjit_ under Alyt Sulann, and the medium support cruiser _Barksdale_ under Alyt Stevenson."

"Gok meat," McCloskey uttered with a smile.

"I'm sorry?"

"When he was in training, Stevenson fell asleep outside of Tuzenor. He woke up surrounded by wild Goks who were sizing him up. When he finally made it back to the facility, he was bleeding from head to toe, and we all got to calling him Gok meat."

"I see. It is uniquely human to make light of another's mistakes and injuries, if you find them incurred in a less than noble manner. It doesn't foster trust, or a sense of camaraderie."

"It was funny. A big tough Ranger in training mauled by Goks." Captain McCloskey chuckled in spite of himself. "It's like seeing a policeman running from cats."

"Wild Goks are very aggressive," Dubaar pointed out.

"But they're only this big." McCloskey said, holding his hands about two feet apart. "Oh, never mind Dubaar. When will all four ships be together?"

"In approximately two hours, twenty-five minutes."

"Okay, have all of the Alyts meet me here for a briefing when all are present. Oh and Dubaar, don't mention the Gok meat thing to Alyt Stevenson. He's still sensitive about it."

"I can't imagine why," Dubaar replied dryly.

One by one the other Ranger ships pulled into formation with the _Valiant_. The scout vessel, the _Farjit_ was a small, nimble Minbari ship, around half the size of the Whitestars. The last vessel to arrive was the _Barksdale_. The cruiser was much smaller than any of the equivalent Earth cruisers, but it was still a third again as long as the _Valiant_. As she pulled into formation, McCloskey noted the many weapons modifications that Stevenson had made. The _Barksdale_ was bristling with offensive firepower, and McCloskey wondered where the power for the weapons came from. He put the thought out of his head and refocused himself on the task at hand. He waited patiently for the other captains to arrive on board, and though about what his taskforce could reasonably and safely accomplish.

Dubaar interrupted his thoughts by clearing his throat.

"When are you going to stop doing that to tell me there's something on your mind?"

"I suppose when you stop reinforcing the behavior by asking me to come 'out with it.'"

"Well?" McCloskey asked.

"The Alyts are assembled in the meeting room. They await your briefing."

"Thank you Dubaar. I'd like you to stay on the bridge. You already know everything I do, and I'd feel better knowing you were up here handling things if we came across something unexpected."

"Of course." Dubaar said. McCloskey smiled at his friend, and stepped away from the command chair. Dubaar sat down and relaxed in to it. He looked up at Alyt McCloskey, and said, "Comfortable."

"I'm glad you approve," McCloskey said, and walked quickly to the conference room. When he stepped inside, the other three captains rose and bowed. McCloskey returned the gesture, and motioned for everyone to sit down.

"I'm glad you could all come on such short notice," he said, placing his arms on the table in front of him and interlocking his fingers together. "I can't say for certain that this is a full blown emergency, but if the Drakh are moving, then the Alliance must know about it."

"There is no need to declare it an emergency, Alyt McCloskey," said Sulann, the captain of the _Farjit_. She was as tall as McCloskey, and had the look of the Warrior Caste about her. She was attractive, for a Minbari, but if he had dared to say so McCloskey believed he would be throttled badly. To compliment her beauty would be to imply that her combat skills were somehow below par, and no Warrior would take such a remark lightly. "Dubaar was thorough enough in his request for aid to dispel any doubts about our purpose here," she remarked.

Rewenn spoke next. "However, his explanation was lacking in detail. What exactly is the situation here, Alyt McCloskey?" Rewenn was most likely Religious Caste, judging by his appearance and his demeanor. He was softer somehow that Sulann, but McCloskey knew that he was no less a fighter for being Religious. After all, Entil'za was of the Religious Caste, and no one in this side of the galaxy would dare cross her.

"Around six hours ago, the Earth Alliance Explorer _Polowski_ and Destroyer _Leviathan_ were attacked by Drakh forces in sector 1305. There was a call for help by the Commander of the Destroyer, and at the end of the transmission was the scream of a Shadow Vessel. We do not know for certain if it is an actual ship, or some kind of replica. It may even simply be a recording or jamming device that sounds similar. Still, the Drakh are real, and we are currently heading to assist any survivors and find out if the Drakh are mounting some kind of offensive."

"Alyt McCloskey," Sulann interjected, "Do you believe it could actually be the Shadows?" The tone of her voice was serious, but held a slight hint of excitement mixed with disbelief.

"No, Sulann, I don't believe it is. They've gone beyond the Rim, and I do not imagine they will ever be back. I think it would be best if we just focused on what we know. Are there any other questions?"

"I have one," rumbled Stevenson. "What are we to do if we encounter a Drakh force?"

"Depending on its size and compliment, we will either watch and report its movements, or engage and destroy it. If we're lucky, there won't have any Goks with them."

Stevenson, blushed a bit, and smiled in spite of himself, while the two Minbari looked at one another and tried to puzzle out what McCloskey meant.

"I will not keep you any longer. When we are ready to start looking, the _Farjit_ will take point, and the _Valiant_ and Whitestar 33 will ride escort for the _Barksdale_. Top priority will be the location of the Earth Alliance vessels and retrieval of survivors. If that proves impossible we will be sweeping the area to locate Drakh forces and we will move from there. Is everyone clear?"

The assembled captains nodded and everyone stood. The filed out and as he left, Stevenson punched McCloskey soundly on the shoulder.

"I had to say something. It's tradition," McCloskey offered in his own defense.

"It's a lousy tradition, McCloskey. Next time I'll swing higher. How have you been?"

"Good. Working Babylon 5 can be boring at times, and the temptation to get involved with the local matters is always distracting. Captain Lockely doesn't like a lot of outside interference, and she isn't shy about saying so. Still, a lot of good information comes through that place. It's a valuable resource. I still think the ISA should squeeze together the credits and buy her from Earth."

"Earth Gov won't play ball, so it doesn't matter."

"Yeah, I guess. So how are you doing, GM?"

Stevenson glared at him, but answered, "Good. I was originally less than excited about inheriting the _Barksdale_. She was just a glorified transport when I got her, but when I was told that my ship was _my _ship, I began changing her to my liking."

"I was going to ask you about her weapons. How can she support so many?"

"Well, I cleared out a lot of the storage bays, and I had an extra fusion reactor thrown in. The big military general fusion 650, mind you, not a duplicate of the _Barksdale's _drive reactor."

"That's the same class of reactor that's in the EA's Omega series," McCloskey uttered, somewhat awed. "I thought they used gelled deuterium as fuel."

"Well they do, and it does. We have an agreement with one of the fuel depots over near Proxima. We arrange to have certain items delivered to them, and they keep us gassed and ready to go. She doesn't look like much, Mac, but if I cut loose with everything she's got, I could put a very big hole in a small planet. I can divert the power from weapons to the drive when I need to, but not for too long or I'd burn out the relays and probably the engines. I'm working with the scrap field supervisors near Mars on getting a couple BB9K Ion/Particle thrust engines from a scrapped Nova Dreadnought. If I had the right access and the time, I'd get a ship together that could kick the snot out of the Drakh."

"I don't doubt it, Robert. Not one bit."

"I'd better get back to her, make sure we're ready. How long before we hit sector 1305?"

"Well, if we can pick up the pace a little, maybe four more hours."

"I hope we find some good news when we get there. I hate retrieval duty."

The time dragged by as the ships flew along the hyperspace beacons as fast as the _Barksdale_ could go. McCloskey sat in the command chair and looked out through the physical windows into the swirling colors, and let his mind relax. Inevitably it returned to the Shadow War. He had flown over twenty combat missions into Shadow territory, and had engaged the Shadows themselves on three separate occasions, assisted three other Whitestars in destroying a Shadow Capital Ship, and two weeks before Coriana, he had lost fifteen members of his crew to a Shadow Scout vessel. There wasn't enough time to fully recrew before Captain Sheridan began staging ships at Babylon 5, and Captain McCloskey had never replaced the Rangers who died under his command. It just didn't seem right to him. Others adjusted to cover their absence, McCloskey included. Every other day, when he wasn't officially captaining the ship, he was cleaning it and doing minor maintenance on the shuttles and flyers she carried, and he volunteered to cook sometimes, though the crew was less than excited about those meals.

He had been trained to collect information, and to fight the Darkness when it returned, and he had done that, but he never expected to survive to see the end of the conflict. The stories that were told about the last Great War made it seem hopeless to resist, but here he was. The war was over, and he was still alive, still serving but he was unsure about his place in the universe now. The change of the Ranger's role with the formation of the Interstellar Alliance had been difficult for a lot of them, McCloskey included. He was a Ranger, not some kind of galactic policeman, but he tried. It was what the One wished, so he lived each day striving to be the best he could be, but a part of him buried deep inside, was malcontented.

A chime from the navigation station brought McCloskey out of his own thoughts. He turned to Dubaar and asked him what the chime meant.

"We have arrived at the hyperspace coordinates given to us by Commander Corwin for the last reported location of the _Leviathan_."

"Is there any sign of either ship?"

"Still scanning, but there isn't anything yet."

"_Valiant _to _Farjit_, follow the drift and see if you can find any sign of the missing ships or the wreckage. Whitestar 33, maintain a point equidistant between the _Farjit_ and our current position. We'll call you when you hit the edge of scanner range."

Both commanders sent their acknowledgement to Captain McCloskey and moved to execute his orders. The ships moved to McCloskey's right as they followed the prevailing drift in Hyperspace and were soon lost to vision in the swirling mists.

"How long before we have to call off Whitestar 33?" McCloskey asked.

Dubaar studied his instruments for a moment. "At present speed, she will hit the edge of our sensor range in twenty five minutes, give or take. We can extend that time, and our searching distance, by moving away from the _Barksdale_ ourselves."

McCloskey nodded. "I know, I just hate spreading ourselves so thin when we haven't secured the area. We don't know what's out there, or when it might come back."

"That's true, but we also have no reason to believe that there is a danger any longer. Until we find a ship that the Drakh would still be looking for, we must assume both the _Polowski_ and the _Leviathan_ destroyed, and the Drakh are gone. It took us too long to get here for there to be a good chance of finding anything."

"So you are basically saying…"

"What's the harm in looking?" Dubaar finished his thought. "On the chance that some of the crew was able to find a way to survive, we should make every effort possible to find them."

"You're right. When Alyt Rewenn checks in, inform him that we will be extending the range of the _Farjit_'s search."

"Aye, sir."

Time passed without any communication from the scout ship, and The _Valiant_ moved away from the _Barksdale_ to extend the reach of the search. For over an hour, the Rangers swept through Hyperspace, scanning for any remnants of the Earth Alliance ships, and finding nothing. With little else to do, McCloskey called the ships back in to regroup at the _Barksdale_.

"We did all we could. There is nothing out here. When all of the craft get in, we'll jump to normal space and start looking around there. Maybe they managed to jump and get away."

"I will have…" Dubaar was interrupted by an alarm from his console. "We have lost contact with the _Farjit_."

"What?!" McCloskey shouted.

"We no longer have sensor contact with the ship."

"Open a channel to Whitestar 33. Alyt Rewenn, we have lost contact with the _Farjit_ at the coordinates Dubaar is sending you. Please investigate, we are moving to assist but you're closer."

"Of course, Alyt McCloskey," Rewenn's soft voice betrayed no hint of surprise or concern. He had heard that the Minbari captain was as calm in battle as he was in temple, and it appeared as though the tales were not exaggerated.

The ships darted toward the location of the _Farjit_'s disappearance, and the _Valiant_ arrived not long after Whitestar 33. There was no sign of the scout.

"We have detected the gravitic signature of the _Farjit_, but the ship is missing, and there appears to be no debris," Captain Rewenn reported.

"Any ships in the area besides us?" asked McCloskey, over his shoulder.

"No, we are alone."

"Then where the hell did Sulann get to?"

As if in response to his question, the _Farjit_ appeared between the two Whitestars. Captain Sulann exploded over the speakers of both ships, "Back away from this position, now!"

Both Whitestars reversed at full speed, peeling away from the _Farjit_, who herself descended quickly, as a fourth ship seemed to emerge from a blur in hyperspace. It was a battered Earth Force Omega class Destroyer, designation _Leviathan_. The ship was in bad shape, with gaping holes in her hull. The gravity section was still, and the drive section looked to have suffered several internal explosions.

Captain McCloskey was beside himself with disbelief. "Where did she come from?" he asked out loud.

"Unclear. Our sensors show no unusual formations in hyperspace," Dubaar said. A light flashed on his console. He cleared his throat, "Captain, we are being hailed by the _Leviathan_."

McCloskey nodded and sat in his chair.

"This is Leila Brooks, Commander of the EAS Leviathan. On behalf of myself, and my crew, I wish to convey our thanks, and great happiness at seeing you. We didn't think anyone heard the distress signal."

"Commander Brooks, this is Douglas McCloskey of the ISA Whitestar _Valiant_. I wish I could take the credit, but your thanks should go to Alyt Sulann of the _Farjit_. She found you, and I would very much like to hear about how she did that, and how you have fared since the distress signal was sent. First however, I have to ask about the _Polowski_. Did she share in your good fortune?"

"No, Captain McCloskey, I'm afraid the _Polowski_ was beyond our power to save. We did manage to collect most of her crew however, after the attacking vessels withdrew."

"Do you think you can handle a jump to normal space?"

"Negative, Captain. We should remain here. Normal space is too dangerous."

"Why?" asked McCloskey, somewhat suspicious but mostly concerned about the safety of the survivors.

"The Drakh may still be out there, and those other things too."

"What other things?" McCloskey pressed, hoping that she would say anything other than what he believed she would.

"Some of the crew said that they're called Shadows."

On board the _Valiant_, all of the Ranger captains sat down with the surviving commanders of the Earth Force ships, and a few other people that Commander Brooks had requested. Besides Brooks there was Captain Cartwright, and Lt. Commander Keenan of the _Polowski_, and one Mr. Taggart, of a private ship called the _Lucent_.

"Commander Brooks," Captain McCloskey said, beginning the informal debriefing, "I'm not sure where you should begin, but if we are to properly investigate this, we need to know everything that has happened out here, start to finish. I understand that you may have to leave out certain sensitive information in the interest of protecting Earth Force secrets. To that I would say, please do not. Any information, however trivial, or secret, can mean the difference between success and failure."

"I understand, Captain McCloskey. To tell the truth, I don't know everything as well as some of the others here, Mr. Taggart in particular. He was on the _Lucent_, which is the ship that initially made contact with the Drakh. It all starts with him."

McCloskey and the other Rangers turned their heads to look at Taggart. His face whitened at the attention, and he nervously took a sip of water.

"The _Lucent_ was on a standard mapping mission when we came across the remnants of a major fleet battle," Taggart said. "Dozens and dozens of ships were involved. We moved in closer to investigate, and may have triggered a shuttle from one of the big cruisers. Captain Ward went out after it and …" Taggart relayed the events that led to his being stranded. As he was describing the arrival of the _Polowski_, Captain Cartwright took up the narrative, telling of the arrival of the _Leviathan_, the autopsy of Lt. Tsergov with Dr. Keenan's help, and the battle with the Drakh where both ships escaped into hyperspace.

Commander Brooks picked up the story at this point. "Both ships entered hyperspace, and began heading back to Earth Alliance territory. The _Leviathan_ still had several fires burning in engineering, but they were coming under control, then those Shadows came. They were huge, fast and powerful. There were only two of them, but they were so fast. They used some kind of cutting beam to saw off the drive section of the _Polowski_, then the sliced off her bow. At that point we were able to get a volley off from our interceptors, and it was like they barely scratched these things, but they got their attention. We were hit in engineering, and in several places in the gravity section. The infirmary was one of the first places to go. Captain Wallace was still there when it happened.

"One of the ships kept firing at the _Polowski_, like it was whittling the ship down, piece at a time. The other ship was fighting with us, and to be honest I figured we would be short work, but all of a sudden, both ships withdrew. The _Polowski_'s lifeboats began to release from the habitat section, and we began to collect them while we tried to get our main engines on line. We had most of the crew when the ships came back. They hit the _Polowski_'s drive section and habitat at the same time, and the force of the explosion knocked the _Leviathan_ into the pocket where we were found. We waited a while, and after nothing came in after us, we began sending shuttles out to look for more lifeboats, but we didn't find any.

"Then, we saw the _Farjit_ fly in and started to celebrate." Brooks slid a data crystal to McCloskey. "This is a portion of the battle, taken from some of our gun cameras, and some readings from our tactical displays. The spider ships are shown in pretty good detail on a few of the shots."

The Rangers absorbed the information, looking for wisdom and insight where they could. The silence stretched on for an uncomfortable moment, and it was Dubaar who finally broke it.

"Is there anything else anyone would like to add? Something that may seem insignificant to you, but may have relevance nonetheless?"

No one spoke until Captain Cartwright volunteered information about the nightmare he had on board the _Polowski_. He included every detail he could recall.

"It is of significance that the only communication we have had from these parasitic aliens has been this word, 'Vindicta,'" Rewenn said. "What does this word mean?"

None of the humans were able to answer. Captain McCloskey entered the word into his data-pad and sent the request for definitions to the ship's computer. While it was trying to locate the information, Sulann asked another question.

"Has anyone discovered anything beyond what Captain Cartwright knows of the vessels that had originally engaged the Drakh?"

"I don't think so. Commander Franks was heading up that investigation," Cartwright replied.

"Is it possible for us to speak with Commander Franks?"

Cartwright's eyes became hard for a moment, and he shook his head slowly. "No I'm sorry that isn't possible. Commander Franks was assisting in the evacuation of the crew when the spider ships came back. He was not among the survivors rescued by the _Leviathan_."

McCloskey's pad beeped once, signaling that the search for the meaning of "Vindicta" was complete. Dubaar said something to the group but McCloskey was only dimly aware of it as he read over the text that the search had produced.

"Alyt McCloskey?"

"Huh?" He said as he looked up and around at the assembly. They were all looking at him expectantly.

"Commander Brooks was asking what our next move would be," Dubaar repeated for the human, reaching out with his mind at the same time asking _"What is it?"._

"For the time being, I agree that the _Leviathan_ should remain in hyperspace. The Rangers will investigate the inside of that asteroid cloud to see if we can't determine what is going on. I have a hunch there may be more to this than just an attack. This could be the start of a major offensive."

"With all respect, Captain McCloskey, I appreciate the help but this is an Earth matter, involving Earth ships," Commander Brooks.

"Well, you made it our business when you called for help," Captain Stevenson replied, a little curtly.

"Help which you have supplied. I do not think an investigation is necessary on the part of the ISA. There are already Earth Alliance vessels on the way I'm sure. They will handle the investigation of what happened and anything else that should come up. We're ready for hostilities now, and they won't catch us off guard."

Captain McCloskey took the data crystal Commander Brooks had given him, and placed it into the console on the table. A shimmering holographic projection materialized on one end of the meeting room, and the attack by the Shadow vessels was played for all to see. With brutal efficiency, they sliced apart the _Polowski_, and nearly destroyed the _Leviathan_.

"Is this what you are so confident your ships can handle, Commander?" Captain McCloskey added. "To be both technical and frank, this is not EA territory, and we are not under EA jurisdiction. We have fulfilled our primary mission by retrieving you, and we will be sending you on your way as soon as we are reasonably sure that you can arrive back into EA space without incident. In order to do that I must evaluate the current level of threat posed by the Drakh and their allies. I intend to do that, and conduct myself in any manner I see fit to find the answers that I need to make my report to Ranger One. If you don't like that, Commander, I am truly sorry but it does not change anything.

"We are not usurping your authority. We are conducting an independent investigation. When the rest of your ships arrive, we will share everything we know, just as you have shared everything with us. That cooperation is what the Alliance stands for."

Commander Brooks did not respond. She just stared at the Shadow ships wiping out the _Polowski_ over and over again. After a tense silence, she said, "Fine. But we will not wait in hyperspace. Give my crew another thirty minutes to get my engines back online, and we will join your investigation."

McCloskey nodded, "As you wish Commander."

The Earth Force personnel were taken back to their shuttle, and returned to the _Leviathan_. The other Ranger captains remained on the _Valiant_. McCloskey tossed his data-pad onto the table and spoke to the other Rangers.

"Captain Ward of the _Lucent_, probably under the influence of the parasites identified by Dr. Keenan, and the late Lt. Tsergov in Captain Cartwright's dream, both communicated with the word 'Vindicta' only. The computer has produced the translation of that word." He recited the definition from memory. "_From Earth: Ancient Language Latin: Vindicta - the staff or rod with which a slave was touched in the ceremony of manumission; a liberating-rod; ceremonial act claiming as free one contending wrongful enslavement; vengeance_."

The other Rangers digested the information. Rewenn decided to try and reason through this out loud.

"We do know that the Drakh were servants of the Shadows before the war, and with the destruction of Z'ha'dum, they were master-less and wandering."

"But they are almost surely seeking to consolidate themselves now," said Sulann. "Are they seeking revenge?"

"Possibly," interjected Stevenson, "or maybe they have returned to the service of the Shadows."

"I don't believe that the Shadows have returned. They just wouldn't do that," McCloskey said.

"What if some never left?" Sulann offered. "We can't assume that there were no Shadows who did not agree with the decision to leave." The conversation dropped suddenly.

"That is a possibility, but I would rather proceed with the Drakh hypothesis, until we have positive proof that the Shadows are involved," McCloskey said.

"Beyond the use of their ships?" Sulann answered hotly. "Surely that is proof enough!"

"Their tactics aren't consistent with the Shadows'. They never would have left a target just floating in space if they had wanted it destroyed. I also find it unlikely that the Shadows could lose something in hyperspace the size of a destroyer. The Shadows didn't man their vessels themselves in combat, anyway. They had another living being to act as the control system for their….in Valen's name….that's it!"

"What is?" asked Stevenson.

"Everyone get to your vessels and be ready to jump to normal space in ten minutes. We're going into the asteroid cloud. We can leave instructions for the _Leviathan_ to hold her position in normal space and act as a second attack wave if we should need it. I have to see what is inside of that asteroid cloud before I can be sure of what is going on, but if my hunch is right, the Drakh are looking for their liberation rod, and they may have already found it."

The Ranger vessels punched though to normal space in tight formation, ready for anything that should be waiting for them. They met only empty space, and drifted to a stop still in formation.

"The reports of the Earth Force personnel are correct. Our scanners cannot penetrate the asteroid cloud. We can no longer contact the _Leviathan_. Further in we are detecting two planets, both small in size. The innermost planet has no atmosphere, and the second appears to have a thin one, mostly methane and ammonia. There are multiple craft orbiting the second planet. They appear to have the same configuration as the Shadow Vessels we have encountered on previous occasions, but they do not appear to be active."

"I didn't expect them to be. Take us in closer to the second planet Dubaar. I want to see this."

"What exactly are we looking at here?" came Captain Stevenson's question came over the ship's speakers with a tinge of distortion.

"The Vorlons and the Shadows both used organic ships; living ships. Something that's alive isn't built, Alyt Stevenson. It's born."

The Ranger ship flew into range of the vessels drifting lazily in the orbit of the murky looking, blue tinged planet. They were clearly Shadow vessels, their black skin shiny, but not moving as it does on active ships. They were at various sizes, and what appeared to various stages of development. Several full sized ships drifted together, while ships one quarter their size, and without any of the signature legs floated nearby.

The Whitestars and the other craft flew to within weapons distance and halted. There were almost fifty of the ships here, but only that one small handful looked to be full sized. Two more had become separated from the main group, and were in decaying orbits around the planet.

"Alyt McCloskey," Dubaar said, "I'm detecting a signal from the other side of the planet. It appears to be a craft of some kind."

"Drakh?"

"Unknown. The computer is trying to identify the nature of the signal."

"Set an intercept course, maximum speed. Signal the _Farjit_ to accompany us, and the others to hold here."

The _Valiant_ and the smaller _Farjit_ leapt ahead to close in on the source of the signal. They flew close enough to the atmosphere to grow warm from the friction in an effort to shave some time off of their route. As the planet moved from between the Rangers and their quarry, the computer identified the craft as those used by the Shadows as scouts. It spun and jetted away from the approaching Rangers.

The _Farjit_ broke off its course and turned away, perpendicular to the _Valiant_'s course. The Whitestar streaked along, closing the distance with the Shadow Scout with frustrating slowness.

"How long before we can fire?" McCloskey asked.

"We can shoot now, we just won't hit anything. At present speed, we should be close enough to target the ship in two minutes."

"That's too long. See if you can't throw him off with a lucky shot. Fire at will Dubaar."

The Whitestar's weapons opened up, and fired beams and bursts at the Shadow scout vessel, but none came close enough to affect a change in course.

"Where is he going?" McCloskey demanded.

"If it holds to his present course, it will be returning to the inactive Shadow ships."

"Back to the nursery, why? How long before we can fire?"

"One minute, twenty seconds for positive weapons lock."

"How long before he makes the nursery?"

"One minute, thirteen seconds."

The voice of Captain Rewenn came across the speakers of the _Valiant_. "Alyt McCloskey, we are detecting an energy buildup within several of the ships. It happened quite suddenly and is gaining speed."

"What kind of energy buildup? Are the ships activating?" McCloskey asked, staring at the image of the Shadow scout on the viewer.

"Unknown. The ships have shown no sign of movement."

"Dubaar, are we jamming the scout's transmission?" asked McCloskey.

"Yes."

"Alyt Rewenn, how close to the Shadow ships was the _Valiant_ when the energy buildup began?"

"The ship would have been at the edge of your scanner range," Rewenn replied.

"Or at the edge of our effective jamming range. Rewenn, Gok Meat, get the hell out of the nursery. Get as far from it as you can!" McCloskey shouted. "Where is the _Farjit_?"

"Closing on the enemy vessel now. She's moving awfully fast, Douglas," Dubaar reported.

The _Farjit_ had used the planet's gravity as a slingshot, and taken a course to head off the Shadow ship. She was flying at incredible speed, faster than a Whitestar could travel at full burn, and before McCloskey could open a channel to her, the _Farjit_ opened fire. The Minbari scout had limited weapons capabilities, but at the range with which it was hit, the Shadow ship had little chance of surviving. It did not explode, as other ships did when struck a severe blow. Instead it imploded softly, and crumpled, spilling a black mist of particles and debris from the holes made by the _Farjit_'s weapons. When the Shadow scout was destroyed, all of the larger Shadow ships in the nursery exploded with tremendous force.

The _Farjit_ was swallowed by the energy cloud, and the _Valiant_ had to pull up hard to avoid being hit dead on by the shockwave. The Rangers on board the _Valiant_ were tossed about by the impact, but the resilient ship shrugged off most of the damage. The ship righted herself, and the command crew pulled themselves to their feet.

"What's our condition, Dubaar?" asked McCloskey, rubbing the back of his head where it had struck the deck.

Dubaar oriented himself above his console and ran down a list of ship operations and systems. "We are undamaged, Alyt McCloskey, aside from some bruising on the hull, and on the crew. No major injuries have been reported."

"McCloskey to Ranger task force, please advise on current ship and crew conditions."

"This is Rewenn, Whitestar 33. Minor damage to gravitic drive system, crew well. Estimate fifteen minutes for full repair."

"_Barksdale_ here. We're okay. A couple of broken bones from the engineering crew, but otherwise fine."

There was an uncomfortable silence after Stevenson's report. "_Valiant_ to _Farjit,_ what's your status?" McCloskey asked. There was no reply. "Dubaar, take us to what's left of the nursery."

All three ships converged on the area of space where the Shadow ships had been in orbit. There was no trace of the _Farjit_ at all among the detritus. McCloskey sat heavily in his chair and stared at the viewer. He was about to speak when Dubaar's console beeped. McCloskey dared to hope that it was a signal from the _Farjit_.

"We're receiving a text only message from the _Farjit,_" Dubaar said. "It's Alyt Sulann. She's reporting severe damage to communications, weapons, propulsion, and minor damage to the environmental systems, with a near total failure of the sensor and stealth units. She also reports no casualties."

"Well, she's lucky she survived at all; damned lucky." McCloskey muttered.

Dubaar cleared his throat.

"Yes Dubaar, out with it," McCloskey asked, trying not to show any of the mild annoyance that bloomed in him when Dubaar opened a conversation in that manner.

"I am detecting unusual disturbances in the space around us. There appear to be over a dozen of these signals; similar in construction to the "pocket" of hyperspace in which we discovered the _Leviathan_. Douglas, there are ships emerging from the disturbances."

"Show me," he said.

The viewer shimmered for a moment, and then displayed the emerging ships. They were all white in color, and appeared to be glowing slightly. They were not bright enough to cover the markings on the hull, which appeared as splotches of darker coloring, grays and blacks. The markings were moving as well, flowing over the surface of the vessels. The main part of the vessel was rounded and smooth, with no panel lines or any sign of fabrication. The rear of the vessels were dominated by a complex arrangement of what looked to be gravitic fins, not unlike those used by the Minbari. These however, were smaller and seemed at the same time more efficient, and less complicated than the Minbari design. There were several protrusions along the rounded part of the hull, with one near the top of the ship that seemed to indicate a command and control station. The bow of the vessel was sleek and extended from the main hull for a ways, making the ship look fast, even though McCloskey had no idea what the capabilities of the vessels were. They were perhaps three times the size of the _Valiant_, and there were thirteen of them, completely surrounding the Ranger vessels.

"Alyt McCloskey, the sensors are indicating a significant amount of unknown components making up the hulls of the vessels. Similar findings were taken from the remnants of the ships that opposed the Drakh fleet, according to Commander Frank's notes and the logs from the _Lucent_. I believe ships identical to those that engaged the Drakh fleet outside the asteroid cloud."

"I'm assuming 'engaged' is a nice way of saying obliterated."

"That seems appropriate. The markings on the alien vessels are moving in regular patterns. They could be trying to communicate."

"Send them our language codes, interlac alphabet, numeric systems, everything we have. We need to be able to talk with them."

One of the vessels advanced a few hundred meters, and a narrow blue beam leapt from one of the protrusions and struck Whitestar 33. The _Barksdale_ powered up the other half of her weapons, and Dubaar watched in quiet surprise as the instruments monitoring the potential output of the _Barksdale_ topped out.

"Hold your fire, Gok Meat!" McCloskey ordered. "What is your status, Rewenn?"

"No damage, Alyt McCloskey. It appears as though we are being scanned or probed. There is a minor power drain, but otherwise we are unharmed."

The blue beam ceased, and the viewer activated on its own. The images of the alien craft vanished, replaced by what must have been the aliens themselves. It was taller than it was wide, and seemed to have a head, atop a long, thin neck. The body of the alien seemed to be featureless, and from each side was what looked like a pair of prehensile tentacles. More, thicker and less delicate looking tentacles extended from the bottom of the body and seemed exclusive to locomotion. Though how this was accomplished was anybody's guess. The head displayed several dark, rounded depressions, which could have been sensory organs. There were also small, flat openings on either side of the head, which had the look of gills.

The slits opened and a light, high-pitched piping came across the comm channels, which the translating unit was able to understand. The computer translated the words to English, and the natural language of the alien was subdued.

"We have observed you, and sampled your ships. We can see the knowledge of the Masters in your craft. The Masters must have given it to you. You serve as we serve. We are called Vor'cha. We are allies and friends."

"What is the name that you use for the masters, so that we can be sure we are friends?" McCloskey asked.

"They have only one name. Vorlon."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Monday, July 26th 2266

05:56 EST

Sector 1305, The Rim

Commander Brooks shut off the comm at her station and turned to face the others who were working on the bridge of the _Leviathan_.

"Engineering is ready to start the gravity section. Everyone get settled," she said as she pushed her floating hair from her pretty, tired face.

The massive section began to turn slowly, getting up to speed, and those on the bridge began to drift down until they were planted firmly on the deck. Brooks sat heavily in her chair and sighed.

Captain Cartwright, who had been coordinating the engineering repair from the bridge, looked up from his console. "We have about 95% gravity. It looks like there may be some structural damage to one of the drive motors that's preventing 100%," he said.

"I'll take it. How about weapons?" She turned her head to look in the area of the tactical station. Ensign Thomas of the _Polowski_ had filled in on that station after Lt. Beckham was killed in the fight with the Drakh.

"Forward and rear batteries are recharging now that the mains are back online. We'll have enough for a full volley in six minutes. Defense grid is piecemeal; we can throw up a good screen if they come from below us, or from the port side, but everywhere else there are holes you fly a passenger liner through."

"Well, we'll have to make sure we get them before they get close enough to get us," she said, swiveling the chair around to face the tactical display. It had narrowly survived the explosion that rocked the bridge near the end of the battle with the Shadow Ships. Currently it was displaying the power readouts of various ship systems. Brooks allowed herself to look around the bridge. There were lots of new faces, as survivors of the _Polowski_ stepped in to supplement the _Leviathan_'s crew. One of the additions she couldn't understand was the xeno-archaeologist, Taggart. He wasn't really manning a station, but Captain Cartwright had insisted that he remain on the bridge. She stood up and walked to where he was standing.

"Not much of a rescue, is it Mr. Taggart," she said, flashing a half smile at him. He returned the smile.

"No it's not, but I don't think you or Captain Cartwright are to blame. This is a lot bigger than I had imagined. I knew there was something not right about the debris field. I just had no idea that things would go so wrong for us. Captain Cartwright and I are in agreement that this sector of space should be closed off and forgotten about."

"Well, if we did that, whoever is responsible for all of this would win, and all of our comrades would have died for nothing. I don't want to see that happen. We stay till it's cleaned up."

"You don't have to worry about that, Commander Brooks," Cartwright said from his station, never looking up from his console, "whatever has us here won't let us go. Not without one hell of a fight, and so far, we haven't been much of an opponent."

She looked at the Captain with a puzzled expression on her face, then turned back to Taggart. "You don't think we're doomed here, do you?"

He looked her in the eyes briefly, and turned away without saying anything.

Commander Brooks opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it. She imagined they both had a right to feel fatalistic and depressed. After all, each of them had lost their ship, and a lot of their friends. Still, she could not see herself becoming what they were; defeated.

"What's the status of the Rangers, Lieutenant Beck….I'm sorry. Ensign Thomas?"

"Unknown. They have not exited the asteroid field, and we've had no success seeing in. They have been out of contact for around fifteen minutes."

"How long are we supposed to wait for them? Another ten minutes, an hour? Hell, we don't even know what they've found in there."

"I'm sorry, did you say that you work for the Vorlons?" McCloskey sputtered. He had never seen these aliens before, but the translators for the Whitestars seemed to understand them. That was one surprise in their favor, but to say this was unexpected would be a colossal understatement.

"They are the Masters. We served them."

McCloskey nodded. They must be a race native to Vorlon space, which would explain why they had not been seen until now. It also appeared that they helped the Vorlon's, possibly supplementing their forces, or assisting them in the same ways that the Drakh assisted the Shadows.

"We represent an Alliance of worlds. We have never encountered your kind before, and I'm sure the Alliance would want to open a dialogue with you."

"We require no company but ourselves, and the Masters."

"But the Vorlons have gone," McCloskey asked, hoping the aliens would be willing to discuss the situation.

"Yes, the Masters left with the Eldest, and the Others."

"The others, meaning the Shadows, yes. If I may ask, what is it you are doing here? Have you come to destroy the Shadow's ships?"

"It was a task given to us long ago by the Masters, to watch over these places. This was a place for the Others, and the Others alone."

"But someone else came here. The Drakh," said Dubaar.

"They serve the Others, friend Minbari. They were not to be allowed here," the alien's whistles were quicker, more agitated, when speaking about the Shadows and the Drakh. "When they came, they brought death. Now we have come to watch this place, and to protect it."

"The Drakh came for the ships," McCloskey said more to Dubaar and his crew than to the aliens. "They were looking for their vindicta, their rod of liberation; the signal that would let the galaxy know that they had risen in rank with the absence of the Shadows, from slave to master."

"I see," said Dubaar. "So they came here to get the ships, to use against their enemies, and to establish themselves as a major power. They must have figured out how to activate the ships and taken them. They used their own kind as weapons components."

"No. Not Drakh, the twenty-two crewmembers from the _Lucent_, the ones with a telepathic signature large enough to catch the eye of the Psi Corps. That must have been one hell of a lucky break for them. That's why the shuttle was allowed to go back to the _Lucent_, to fetch more people for parts. There was probably a Drakh on board influencing Captain Ward. It was during the takeover that Tsergov got blown out into space."

"Could they be responsible for the small parasites? Like the one found on the Lieutenant?" Dubaar asked.

"I don't know, but it makes sense. There may be as many as twenty-two Shadow Ships somewhere out there, under the control of the Drakh, and we have no way to find them." McCloskey turned back to the alien who seemed to be waiting patiently on the viewer.

"We think that the Drakh may have escaped with some of the ships that were being kept here. Can you help us to find them?"

The alien backed away, and turned to speak with another of its kind. They spoke lower than McCloskey could hear, and the translator did not amplify their voices. The conversation seemed to drag on, as McCloskey waited for an answer. The alien turned back to the viewer just as McCloskey was about to burst.

"No," it said.

"No?! The Drakh are a danger to anyone they come across, and with the added power of the Shadow Ships they will be able to kill countless innocents. The ships you were supposed to be guarding are blown to hell; there is nothing left to watch over here. Help us." McCloskey shouted hotly.

"The Masters told us to watch this place. That is the limit of our mandate. We will not disobey the Masters. To disobey would be to dishonor their memory. We cannot, will not, leave this place."

"I'm sorry to hear that. It appears then that we have little else to discuss. We will withdraw from this space once our disabled ship is repaired." McCloskey said. He looked at Dubaar and gave him the "end signal" hand gesture, a slash across the throat. Dubaar complied, and the viewer shimmered a moment then retreated into the ceiling.

"Well, this has been a productive day, so far," Dubaar said. "We've rescued an Earth Alliance Destroyer, uncovered a Drakh plot to steal Shadow weapons, probably for use against us, met a heretofore unknown race of technologically advanced, sentient beings who venerate the Vorlons, and discovered that they want nothing to do with us, and it's not even dinner time yet."

"Put a sock in it Dubaar. Send word to the others that as soon as the _Farjit_ can move we're leaving to rendezvous with the _Leviathan_. We should send what we've learned along to the other Rangers. Maybe someone will get lucky and spot the Drakh."

Dubaar nodded. "The _Farjit_ reports that they will be able to move with us in six to eight minutes," he said. "The Vor'cha have not moved, and the coloration of their vessels has remained constant. Tell me Alyt McCloskey is that all for us? Are we to leave now that there is nothing more that we can do?"

"No. We'll stay until I'm sure that the Drakh are gone, and that these Vor'cha are who they say they are. The _Barksdale_ and the _Farjit_ can escort the _Leviathan_ back to Alliance territory. I guess IPX will want the _Lucent _back as well, but they can send a tug when we've cleared the area. Have the Alliance Charter, entry protocols and member information sent to the Vor'cha anyway. They may learn something that will peak their curiosity."

"I wonder why they have never made contact with another species outside of the Vorlons. Surely they must have been aware of us for at least the last few years. With all of the attacks made by the White Star fleet against Vorlon targets during the closing stage of the war, how could they not?" Dubaar mused.

"The Vorlons simply wouldn't have told them. There could be lots of undiscovered entities in Vorlon space. We can't get close to their home world, and it may be presumptuous on our part to think that only Vorlons lived there. Additionally, we haven't really begun to explore their territory, so we can't begin to know what is still out there."

"True. Yet, consider; we had no idea that the Vor'cha were here when we arrived, and would have left just as oblivious of them had _they_ not contacted _us_. I find it odd that they would initiate contact and then claim to desire solitude. It makes no sense."

"You're right, Dubaar. Why the hell did they show themselves? Is it something more than curiosity about the Whitestars?"

"Perhaps they believe that we were sent by the Vorlons; or that we would have a message for them."

McCloskey absorbed this thoughtfully, then snapped his fingers.

"Open a channel Dubaar."

The controls hummed and chimed as Dubaar carried out the orders. The viewer shimmered and descended from the ceiling, and the image of the Vor'cha returned.

"Is there something further you require?" it asked.

"Not as such, I was just wondering if the Vorlons told you why they were leaving. Why all of a sudden every one of them left the galaxy."

"They said that they were no longer required, that the galaxy had outgrown them, and that we were to continue on as we had. The Masters said that they would miss us."

McCloskey stepped closer to the viewer. "The Vorlons left the galaxy, along with the Shadows, because the races which they had 'guided,' chose not to be told what to do any longer. We fought and won the right to make our own choices. The Vorlons may have given you a purpose and direction, but they are gone and it is time for you to make your own purpose. The Drakh have, and they are trying to destroy our Alliance, which is devoted to peace. The Drakh have taken up the torch of chaos and death from the Shadows, but they do not want the survivors to be stronger; they want no survivors. You can help us; if you can just tell us which way they went. Which way they may have been likely to go, and if there are other places with stored Shadow weaponry."

"Our task is to watch over this place…" the Vor'cha's head swiveled sharply to one side and a faint tone could be heard over the open channel.

McCloskey spun to Dubaar, "They're getting a signal. Scan all frequencies and spectrums, all channels. I want to know what they're hearing."

The communication between vessels ended, and Dubaar kept scanning. The Vor'cha ships began to exhibit a change in their coloration. The dark markings were flashing and moving with greater speed. Two of the ships vanished back into the folds in space from which they emerged.

"Anything yet?" McCloskey asked hurriedly.

"There is a lot of information to process. The computer is still sifting through it. The _Farjit_ reports enough power to navigate."

McCloskey debated internally what to do with the wounded scout. With as much damage as she had taken, the _Farjit_ would not be an effective offensive threat. She would be a liability, as the other ships would have to hold back and protect it. He would have to order her to rendezvous with the Earth Force Destroyer, and Sulann would not be pleased.

Dubaar cleared his throat, and looked at McCloskey. "I believe I have isolated a signal. It's an incredibly high frequency light wave, far beyond our ability to see. It appears to have regular pulses and intervals. It's not a random phenomena."

"Can you find the source?" McCloskey asked.

"It is originating from the far side of this system, near the outermost planet and directly opposite the position of the _Leviathan_."

"Relay that information to the other ships, and get me the _Farjit_."

Dubaar's hands danced over the crystals and sensors of his station, and the shimmering image of Sulann appeared on the viewer.

"Alyt Sulann, I am sending the origin point of a signal to you on a sub-channel. I believe that it may be a distress signal. The _Barksdale_ will open a point for you into hyperspace, and you are to rendezvous with the _Leviathan_ and deliver a report to her. We intend to investigate this signal, and if we do not return, you are to escort the Destroyer back to the nearest Earth Alliance outpost, and relay today's events to the Alliance Council."

"I will not abandon this battle…" Sulann shouted, intending to go further. McCloskey raised his own voice to be heard over her protests.

"There is no discussion! Your ship is in no condition to fight and I will not have other ships hold back in a possible engagement to protect you. You have done all you can do in this matter, except comply with an order from a commanding officer. Shall I have you add that to the report you will deliver to Entil'za?"

There was no reply from Sulann, who only stared away from McCloskey and stewed. McCloskey softened a bit and spoke again.

"Sulann, I know you want to fight, but we need you to do this for us. All of us need you to go back to the _Leviathan_ and get the word out about what is happening. There will be other battles, and if I'm there, I will call for you."

Sulann directed her gaze back at McCloskey and nodded once, almost imperceptibly. "Understood, Alyt McCloskey. I will be waiting for your call." Her image vanished and the _Barksdale_'s jump engines activated. The _Farjit_ turned and slowly entered the vortex.

"Well, that went better than I expected," Dubaar muttered.

"Put a cork in it and prepare to jump to hyperspace. Instruct the computer to bring us back into normal space three thousand meters short of the source of the signal."

The ships lights dimmed briefly as the jump engines activated, and the three remaining Ranger vessels slipped through the vortex. They accelerated into hyperspace and traveled to the appropriate coordinates. As they were preparing to jump back to normal space, Dubaar cleared his throat behind McCloskey.

"Out with it Dubaar, just talk," McCloskey barked.

"I am detecting a great amount of localized disturbances in hyperspace directly ahead. There are also elevated levels of chronoton particles. There readings are consistent with recordings of Shadow capital ships moving through hyperspace."

"So we can expect trouble."

"Haven't you been expecting that all along?" Dubaar quipped.

"I suppose I have. Everyone, jump to normal space."

The ships punched through hyperspace and exited into the stars. Dubaar began scanning the area, but all one had to do was look out the windows to see what was happening. Ahead of the Rangers were the white, faintly glowing Vor'cha ships were zipping around, engaged with the larger and faster Shadow vessels. Energy beams sizzled back and forth between them.

"How many ships are we looking at?" asked McCloskey.

"There appear to be nine Shadow vessels, all primary cruiser configuration. Fifteen Vor'cha ships, though three appear to be badly damaged. I am not detecting any sort of fighter or medium class vessel."

"No Drakh ships?"

"I am detecting none."

"Suggestions?"

"Fight," Stevenson said over the open comm channel.

"Fight," repeated Rewenn.

"Fight it is," said McCloskey. "Dubaar, move us in."

The _Valiant_ leapt forward, her weapons powering up. The other two ships followed suit, with the _Barksdale _falling behind as more and more power was siphoned off of the engines by the weapons. They closed the distance relatively quickly, but were unable to help two of the three damaged Vor'cha vessels as the cutting beams of Shadow ship obliterated them. The Vor'cha ships exploded outward, with the pieces continuing to fragment over and over again. The _Valiant_ and Whitestar 33 targeted that Shadow vessel, and opened their forward batteries on it. The beams splashed over the hull, and the craft turned to face the new threat. The Whitestars continued to pour fire onto the ship, which began to buckle under the assault. Before the Rangers could kill the ship, however, two more Shadow ships descended on the Whitestars and forced them to veer off. One Shadow vessel followed each Whitestar, and the injured ship just hung in space for a moment, but it was a moment too long, as the _Barksdale_ finally closed the distance. The forward third of the Light Cruiser opened up in a ferocious volley of particle beams, pulse beams and interceptors. They energy beams and pulses struck the Shadow vessel and overwhelmed it. The spines shriveled and black liquid began to fly from the ever increasing number of holes in the outer skin. Eventually, the ship curled up like a dried insect, and drifted away from the battle. The _Barksdale_ swung about and began laying down random suppressing fire indiscriminately, trying to use that instead of speed to keep the swirling Shadow ships from locking on to it.

The _Valiant_ banked hard, counting on its nimbleness to prevent the Shadow ship from acquiring a good lock with its weapons. The Vor'cha ships seemed to have a different strategy, clustering together, and attacked one ship at a time. They were able to bring more power to bear, but made easy targets of themselves, and one Shadow ship was able to destroy three more of the Vor'cha vessels while the Whitestars regrouped.

McCloskey shook in his seat as his ship skirted a beam from one of the enemy. He turned to Dubaar and shouted, "Get me a target lock on one of those ships."

"I'm unable to do so, Alyt McCloskey, we no longer have surprise as an advantage, and their countermeasures are now active."

"Get me Whitestar 33," McCloskey ordered, and at Dubaar's nod addressed Alyt Rewenn, "Rewenn do you have any telepaths on board your vessel?"

"I am not sure Alyt McCloskey, I will find out in a moment."

Dubaar looked up from his console, and met the intense stare of his captain. "I assume I will be selecting our next target myself."

McCloskey sighed and nodded. "We don't have an option. I was hoping that the fact the Drakh used weak or non-telepaths in the ships would make them more vulnerable. That doesn't appear to be the case. We'll have to see if we can fight them the same way we did in the Sector 83 ambush, and at Coriana."

"I have barely the strength to hold one of their ships, and I cannot do so for very long. Can we bring enough fire to bear on a Shadow vessel to destroy it before we're destroyed?"

"We'll need the Vor'cha if we want to do this right."

"Alyt McCloskey?" came Rewenn over the open com channel. "We have a single human telepath on board. He was ranked P7 in your old Psi Corps."

"Great news, Rewenn. Get him to the bridge and keep this channel open. Dubaar will brief him on what he needs to do when he arrives."

The _Valiant_ and Whitestar 33 zipped nimbly through the battle. The Shadow vessels began making rudimentary kill zones, but the tactics were slow and clumsy compared to the attacks of these vessels during the Shadow War. The _Barksdale_ opened a few volleys here and there, never striking the Shadow ships dead on. But she was causing damage wherever she hit.

McCloskey transmitted a signal to the Vor'cha alerting them that at his signal, a particular Shadow vessel would be disabled, and that if all of the ships were able to bring their weapons around and fire on that ship, they should be able to destroy it. There was no answer from the Vor'cha, and McCloskey decided not to wait for one.

"Dubaar, take your pick," he said as he took Dubaar's place at the weapon's console. Dubaar himself was standing at the window of the bridge and looked out at the battle. He pointed at a Shadow ship that was closing in on a squad of Vor'cha vessels, almost to the point where it they would be trapped in a three way cross fire.

"That one, now," he said.

McCloskey relayed the target ship to Whitestar 33 and the _Barksdale_, and as he swung the _Valiant_ about, Dubaar reached out with his mind and grabbed hold of the person within the ship. From Whitestar 33, the human telepath, named Frederic, also reached out and held the ship. The vessel faltered, then began to drift. All three ships opened fire, and raw energy beams blistered through space to strike the vessel as it hung motionless.

The beams began to penetrate the surface of the Shadow ship, when the other two broke away from their trap and advanced on the Alliance ships. The Whitestars banked and rotated away from the slicing beams of the Shadow vessels, all the while keeping their weapons aimed and firing at their target. The _Barksdale_ cut more power from her drive system and added two more particle beams to the attack. It proved to be the difference as the Shadow vessel crumpled and broke apart.

On the bridge of the _Valiant_ Dubaar nearly collapsed. He braced himself against the window as the ship veered and swooped to evade the retribution of the surviving Shadow ships.

"That took too long. I almost lost it. We will need to bring more firepower to bear or I will run out of strength before we can defeat them all, inexperienced or not, they are still as powerful," Dubaar said.

"Catch your breath, Dubaar. We'll need to pull back if we want to get another clean shot at an enemy ship.

"McCloskey!" Stevenson shouted over the comm, "I need some help here!"

The _Valiant_ and Whitestar 33 descended on the _Barksdale_, which was trying to outrun two of the Shadow ships. Their beams were growing closer and closer to the sluggish cruiser. She was firing back with nearly everything she had, keeping the enemy vessels at bay, but she would not last much longer.

"Dubaar, Frederic, can you slow them down?"

Dubaar watched the ships, and spoke over his shoulder, "Tell Alyt Stevenson to turn left and accelerate as quickly as he can on my mark. Ranger Frederic, our target will be the Shadow ship attacking from the left."

McCloskey relayed the command, and at Dubaar's shout, the _Barksdale_ rotated ninety degrees and opened her engines to full burn. Dubaar and Frederic grabbed hold of the Shadow ship and held it fast. As the one on the right turned and accelerated, it collided with its suddenly motionless companion. The Alliance ships took the opportunity to inflict as much damage as they could. They fired their weapons, and to the surprise of the Rangers, were joined by the combined fire of the Vor'cha ships, which had rushed in on the entangled Shadow vessels. The seven remaining Vor'cha ships, plus the Whitestars and the _Barksdale_ quickly overwhelmed the Shadow cruisers. The Vor'cha weapons caused explosions on the skin of the Shadow ships, which looked like exploding boils, and the deeper material began to seep out. In seconds the two ships were reduced to emaciated husks.

The ships broke away, while the Shadow ships withdrew to regroup. The Alliance and Vor'cha ships also formed up, and the two opposing sides eyed one another.

McCloskey rushed to Dubaar, who had collapsed to the floor. He helped the Minbari to his feet and walked him back to the command chair.

"We're not out of this yet, my friend. There are still five left," McCloskey said.

"I will be fine in a moment, Alyt McCloskey. What are they doing?"

"I'm not sure. They withdrew and, well they're just sitting there."

The console to McCloskey's left chimed, and he and Dubaar looked first at it, then at each other.

"Jump points," they said together.

Across the space just behind and above the Shadow vessels sprouted half a dozen blue vortices, and out of them streamed Drakh Cruisers and Raiders, and a Drakh carrier. McCloskey darted to the console, and checked the readouts.

"Four Cruisers, one Carrier and twenty-eight Raiders, plus the surviving Shadow ships. I guess the Drakh are here to protect their discovery."

"What do we do? We have no hope of victory against numbers like that," Dubaar asked, rising to his feet.

"No, we don't," McCloskey muttered, frantically tasking his mind to come up with some kind of strategy.

"Excuse me Alyt, you are at my station," Dubaar said, standing suddenly next to McCloskey. He looked at the Minbari and nodded, stepping away from the console and shuffling back to the command chair. He stood in front of it and thought of what to do. He would not run from this fight, but he didn't think that he could win it either. He and the Rangers would have to show the Drakh what a sustained conflict with the ISA would cost them.

"And it will be a lesson not soon forgotten," Dubaar said.

"Send this message to the Drakh fleet," McCloskey began ignoring the fact that Dubaar had been peeking into his mind. Dubaar's hands danced across the console to carry out his order.

"Drakh fleet, this is Alyt Douglas McCloskey, of the Interstellar Alliance. You are ordered to power down your weapons and jump engines, space all small arms and noxious foodstuffs, and surrender at once. Additionally, in accordance with new surrender protocols, the captain of each vessel will be required to walk to the top of their ship, with proper environmental safety measures of course, and strut about with their hands on their hips, flailing their elbows and clucking like chickens. Failure to comply with any of these demands will result in a lethal response from the Interstellar Alliance. Do you understand these terms?"

McCloskey looked over his shoulder at Dubaar, who smiled softly and chuckled.

"Creative," he said. His console chimed and he placed the Drakh's reply on the bridge speakers.

"Minbari captain, terms unacceptable. Request insensible. Drakh have advantage. Minbari Whitestars will surrender," the hissing, sibilant voice of the Drakh seemed to drip down from the speakers and into McCloskey's ears.

"If they sound that bad I'd hate to see what they look like," McCloskey remarked. "Dubaar coordinate with the gunners on Whitestar 33 and the _Barksdale_, give me a firing solution that will put the biggest hurt on their carrier. Send the solution to the Vor'cha ships as well."

Dubaar began carrying out McCloskey's orders, when the captain noticed a blinking light on his armrest. He walked to his console, and examined the readout that appeared there. He smiled and looked up at the view screen that displayed the Drakh fleet. He tapped a few buttons on his console, and then addressed them.

"We offer our terms for the last time. If you do not surrender now, we will use deadly force to facilitate that surrender. You have ten seconds to comply." McCloskey closed the channel, spun in his chair to face Dubaar while tapping some numbers into his console. "Do you have my firing solution, Dubaar?"

"Yes, I do but we don't have enough firepower…"

"Good enough, send it to the coordinates I've just placed into your console and prepare to fire on my mark."

Dubaar did as he was instructed, and when he saw that the coordinates were in hyperspace, he smiled at McCloskey.

McCloskey opened a channel to the Drakh fleet. "Drakh fleet, your time is up. What is your decision?"

The hissing, guttural reply came back over the speakers, "No surrender, Minbari."

"It's your funeral," McCloskey said. He tapped the flashing indicator on his chair, and nodded to Dubaar.

The _Valiant_ and Whitestar 33 launched forward, and the _Barksdale_ also began to advance on the fleet. The Whitestars outdistanced the Light Cruiser easily, accelerating to the limits of the ships design. They closed the distance between themselves and the Carrier in a few seconds, heedless of the explosion of beam and pulse weaponry that went out to intercept them. They completed the maneuver, and opened fire on the carrier from almost pointblank range. Drakh Raiders fell into pursuit formations behind the Whitestars, and the smaller ships zipped along the surface of the carrier.

As they did so, the _Barksdale_ opened fire with her forward batteries, and four jump points opened up directly above the Carrier. Out of them flew the _Farjit_ followed by the _Leviathan_, and four other Earth Alliance battleships; the Omega class Destroyers _Persephone_ and _Ajax_, the Hyperion class Heavy Cruiser _Shiloh_ and the Warlock class Heavy Destroyer, _Titans_. They opened fire immediately, chasing the Whitestars with all the weapons they could muster. The crossfire obliterated almost a dozen of the pursuing Raiders, and the deluge was more than the weakly armored Carrier could stand. The Earth Alliance ships swung clear of the Drakh capital ship as it began to collapse in on itself. Explosion after explosion rocked her, and finally her power plant's safety mechanisms failed and she exploded into a small sun.

The ISA and Earthforce ships swung about and engaged the Drakh and Shadow ships. The _Valiant_ banked hard, and McCloskey sent a message to the _Farjit_.

"I don't remember calling for you Alyt Sulann."

"You didn't, but I assumed that you were about too, so I took the initiative," Sulann replied.

Another communication broke through into the _Valiant_'s speakers.

"This is Captain Susan Ivanova, EAS _Titans_, I have been briefed by Commander Brooks on the situation. I recommend that the Whitestars accompany the _Titans_ and engage the commandeered Shadow craft. We have weapons onboard that should be effective, but we'll need an escort."

"Captain Ivanova, this is Alyt McCloskey. Alyrt Rewenn and I are with you."

The Heavy Destroyer spun and the Whitestars took up point positions, and flew directly at the still motionless Shadow ships. The _Titans_ fired all three of her rail guns, and the projectiles smashed into one of the Shadow ships, sending it spinning away from the others, its massive wounds spilling some black substance out into space. The remaining four vessels turned and engaged the _Titans_. The point defense system of the Destroyer flared to life, spreading a lethal cloud of light and medium pulse cannon fire at the incoming Shadow ships. The Whitestars were joined by the six remaining Vor'cha cruisers, and harried the enemy, not letting them get a clear shot at the _Titans_, who drew to bear with her heavy weapons, and sent another of the Shadow ships to hell.

The Drakh fleet was engaged with the rest of the Earth Alliance ships, with the _Barksdale_ riding in the hole in the _Leviathan's_ defense grid. The ships swept through the raiders, and were taking hits on all sides, but managed to get within range of the Drakh Cruisers. They fired and destroyed one, but the tenacious attacks of the raiders forced the Destroyer group to veer off.

The three remaining Shadow vessels broke their engagement and took off at top speed towards the Drakh Cruisers. They were approaching the stern of the Destroyers when McCloskey's warning arrived. The _Shiloh_ and the _Barksdale_ both spun to face the Shadow vessels while the slower Destroyers broke formation. The smaller vessels opened fire on the lead Shadow ship, which spun and weaved through the blasts, until Dubaar closed his eyes and reached out to it. It seized up and stopped moving. The _Shiloh_ launched her fusion missiles and the _Barksdale_ fired every heavy particle beam cannon she had. The Shadow ship screamed and buckled, shriveling to a husk as the remaining two sped on.

The _Farjit_ and the Vor'cha ships joined the Whitestars as they sped to intercept the Shadow vessels. One of them opened fire on the _Ajax_, and the purple beam sliced through the engineering section of the Destroyer. The Shadow ship closed in on the wounded EA ship, bypassing the _Shiloh_and _Barksdale_. The second Shadow ship opened fire on the _Shiloh_, but was only able to score a glancing blow off of her bow, because the _Barksdale_ as well as the Alliance and Vor'cha ships arrived and fired on it. It withdrew from their line of fire, and moved closer to the Drakh cruisers.

The _Leviathan_ and the _Persephone_ fired at the vessel attacking the _Ajax_with their rear batteries, blowing off a few spines from the ship. The ship spun and veered away, leaving the _Ajax_ crippled but intact. The ship appeared as though it was going to withdraw, but it swung around at the last minute and advanced on the _Leviathan_. It flew at the ship right through the gap in her defense grid, and was able to skirt the suppressing fire from the _Persephone_.

Commander Brooks came on the open comm channel and cried out for help. The purple beam lashed out, punching a hole through the segment connecting the engineering section and the gravity section. The Shadow vessel stopped, but broke free again as Dubaar collapsed on the deck of the _Valiant_, unable to hold the ships at bay any longer. The _Barksdale_ swung about and sent all possible power to her engines. Alyt McCloskey saw the _Barksdale_ shoot towards the Shadow vessel and understood what Stevenson was doing.

"Gok Meat stand down, we're almost there!"

"Negative McCloskey, you won't get there in time. I'm closer. The _Leviathan_ goes home, and if you put anything about Goks on my Memory Stone, I'll come back and haunt you till you die."

The _Barksdale_ killed her engines then opened fire on the Shadow ship just as it fired on the _Leviathan_. The Destroyer was hit amidships but the cutting beam ended when the blasts from the _Barksdale_, then the ship itself struck the vessel. The forward section of the Cruiser penetrated the Shadow vessel, which screamed and tried to dislodge itself. The ship's cannons continued to fire, and punched through the top of the Shadow vessel, but the confining nature of the Shadow ship caused a back up of the particle beams, and several of the weapons exploded, causing a chain reaction that destroyed the forward section of the _Barksdale_ and the Shadow ship with it.

The last Shadow vessel sunk to be protected by the Drakh cruisers. The Drakh raiders continued to engage the Destroyers. The _Titans_ closed the distance and fired everything she had at the Drakh Cruisers, with the Earthforce, Alliance, and Vor'cha ships following suit Two of the Cruisers exploded, the debris damaging Whitestar 33, and disabling the forward batteries of the _Persephone_. The _Shiloh_was being swarmed by Raiders, and would have been destroyed but for the last minute regrouping of the Vor'cha, who chased the Raiders off. The _Shiloh_was still badly crippled, and began to drift.

The remaining ships pressed the attack, firing on the last Shadow vessel, which tried to slip into hyperspace. Before it could complete the shift, it was struck by a dozen missiles from the _Titans_ and blown to pieces.

With their prize destroyed, the remaining Drakh ships opened jump points and slipped into hyperspace. The decision was made not to pursue, due to the overall damage to the remaining ships.

Sometime later, Dubaar awoke in his quarters to find McCloskey sitting next to him going over something on a datapad. The Minbari asked if he they had won.

"Yeah, we won. The Shadow ships were destroyed and the rest of the Drakh ran."

"You don't sound terribly happy about it. I believe some bad news is in order, then, it is not?"

"The _Barksdale_ is badly damaged, we may not be able to salvage her. What was left of her crew was brought aboard a little while ago. A Drakh Raider destroyed the _Farjit._ No one on board survived. The Earth Alliance ships took a beating, but they all have power again, and they'll be escorting the _Leviathan_ back to Earth space. Captain Ivanova said that she would be notifying both the ISA and the EA about our work out here. She'll make sure that we are recognized, and that those we lost are remembered."

"What about the Vor'cha?"

"They vanished about the same time as the Drakh. I guess there won't be a dialogue there after all."

"I am sorry that you lost your friend, Douglas. Alyt Stevenson will be remembered with honor. He was a brave man. An ideal Ranger."

"Yeah, he was a good guy. I just hope it was worth it. I hope that we stopped them in whatever they were planning."

"Do you think that there was more to this?"

"There must be. The Vor'cha hinted that there were other shipyards, or nurseries or whatever you want to call them. The Drakh wanted these weapons badly enough to risk an entire fleet to get them, which makes me wonder why they would need such powerful weapons."

"They are planning to go to war, that much is certain. But with whom?"

"Would it matter?"

"No, I suppose it would not. We will be there to stop them, Douglas. 'We walk in the dark places, no one else will enter. We stand on the bridge, and none shall pass.' We do this so that the rest may walk in the light. It is the calling of our hearts. Alyt Sulann and Alyt Stevenson knew that."

"Yeah. Well with any luck the galaxy is a little safer today than it was yesterday."

"Yes, with luck. One day at a time is all we can ask for."

"Maybe being a galactic policeman is a job I can get used to."

"Galactic…" Dubaar stammered, confused.

"I'll explain later."


	6. Chapter 6

Epilogue

Tuesday, July 27th 2266

12:01 EST

Sector 1325, The Rim

The rubble of the six Vor'cha guard ships scattered as the Drakh Carrier collected her Raiders and moved inside the perimeter of the stockyard. The huge ship traveled deeper into the system, and slowed to a halt just outside the pull of a small, dead planet. In orbit around the planet was the prize of all prizes, something more powerful than a fleet of the Master's old ships. The ships could be defeated, as the Drakh who went to acquire them from the nursery had discovered. There was no way this weapon could be destroyed. The humans had neither the intelligence nor the capability to do so.

The Drakh Carrier launched a dozen shuttles that sped toward their target. The captain watched them go, watched them disappear into the swirling black mass of the planet killer to deliver the technicians that would bring it back to life. The captain let his mind wander to a time in the future, when he would lead this planet killer to Earth itself, and destroy the home world of the man who had destroyed Z'ha'dum.

Revenge is almost at hand, thought the captain to himself. He christened the planet killer the _Vindicta._


End file.
